SupCom: ME and SupCom KS Prequel
by Guardian54
Summary: Prequel to my fic Supreme Commander: Mass Effect and any other SupCom Xover fics I write unless otherwise stated. Covers events of Seraphim War.
1. Prologue: End of the Infinite War

A/N: This is prequel to a Supreme Commander/Mass Effect Crossover, it has been moved from said crossover to here.

This also serves as a prequel to all my other Supreme Commander Crossovers, unless explicitly stated.

* * *

Prologue: End of the Infinite War

_September 5__th__, 3844 AD, Ni'ihau, Hawaii, Near Black Sun Installation_

Elite Commander Dostya took one last good look at Hannah Shepard, knowing full well what would happen in but moments. She nodded, and uttered the phrase that would change history. "Fire it!"

Commander Hannah Shepard, a 19-year-old Commander with only six months combat experience, top of her class in Commander Training, even managing to narrowly defeat Dostya in the final exam (no other cadet managed to survive in the simulator for more than fifteen minutes), moved her cursor over Black Sun, selected it, and theatrically slammed her left fist down on the big red button that was mounted in the ACU for nuclear missile launches, just so they could be plotted and coordinated much easier, but which was now controlling the great superweapon directly.

As the barrel and its eight prongs of Black Sun rose slowly, Hannah Shepard locked her ACU into Hunker mode, all armour plates locking into place even as the enormous superweapon tilted itself slightly toward the Horizon and unleashed its torrent of fire into the skies. The beam travelled into Geosynchronous Earth Orbit in a fraction of a second and passed through the Quantum Gate stationed there without complications. All across the UEF-held worlds, the Cybran Liberation Matrix was unleashed, freeing the enslaved symbionts from the Loyalty Program, all across human-held space, Orbital Quantum Gates began to trigger alarms, shaking violently in the vast silence of space.

Mere kilometres away from Black Sun, Avatar of War Marxon smashed his fist on his ACU's console, yelling "Curse you, Brackman!" as the display showed Orbital Quantum Gates all over human-held space beginning to glow red on his console instead of their usual green, with red spreading through the lines indicating frequented routes the fastest.

* * *

The Orbital Quantum Gates finally imploded upon themselves after exploding outward from the energy overload. "Quantum Wake Detected, Long-distance Quantum Travel Impossible for 4.8 years" stated QAI.

"All nodes are executing Protocol Omega-Zulu-Niner" Elite Commander Dostya stated, "We have five years to rebuild and prepare."

Dr. Brackman, leader of the Cybran Nation for over 1200 years, nodded sagely "Good"

The war that had raged on for over a thousand years... was over.

* * *

Hannah Shepard took one last look at the Superweapon that Commanders of all three factions had fought to the death over and sighed, then she directed her ACU to begin the walk back to her nearest firebase, while sending a fleet of five Soul Ripper Experimental Gunships, each 200 meters long and wide, over to the southern island to eliminate Avatar of War Marxon once and for all.

* * *

After Dostya left Dr. Brackman's personal bunker, Brackman looked up once more at QAI "Yes, QAI?" In response to the Quantum Artificial Intelligence's beeping noises

"Primary directive Achieved… They Are Coming." QAI intoned.

"What have I done…" the 1300-year-old doctor shook his head in wonder and sadness.

* * *

_3251 A.D. 593 Years Before Present, Cybran Nation Border Planet EDC103,_

"So the E stands for Galactic East, D for near-galactic-rim, and C for probably habitable with some terraforming? And the 103 is for the number of the planet? With the 1 meaning Investigate NOW! Right?" Commander Zack asked the head scientist, one Dr. Eric Connor. Both were lounging about in the Gate Room of the Cybran Deep Space Explorer _CNS __Wilfinja_.

"Yes, Commander, preliminary scans show a rocky desert planet with low water levels but rising levels of industrial pollution associated with a civilization undergoing an Industrial Revolution, oh how exciting! The second First Contact in the history of humankind! I just hope our people aren't as trigger-happy as the first time… we don't want another disaster like the Seraphim on our hands."

"…Right, you can go down with the Marine and Negotiator detachments, I'll gate down if there's trouble, just give me a call if so, okay? And try to find a clear LZ closer than what the computer gives!" Zack said.

Eric fidgeted nervously "Er, we don't really HAVE a Negotiator division, I'm the only one qualified to negotiate who's on this ship…"

"WHAT?" Zack gaped and then facepalmed "this is SO gonna be a disaster…"

"Don't worry, it won't be that bad, anyways, the ships recharge for transition to normal space is currently at 87%, I should get up to the shuttlebay, get ready to drop, Commander." Eric departed for the nearest elevator.

"This contact is NOT going to go well…" Zack shook his head as he waited in the elevator up to the gangplank, and then he entered his ACU, checking the life support and other diagnostics before sealing up the cockpit of the 60-meter-tall war machine.

_

* * *

_

Rakhana (aka EDC103), Northern Hemisphere, United Nations Capital City New Hope

President Enath Soirk (A/N Yes that's Thane's name sort of backwards, Soirk sounds like Thwark for anyone who's wondering) scratched the side of his head in irritation as new reports came in of ever-more-ominous predictions by the leading Drell scientists as to the fate of their world, now the predictions of time before the surface temperature reached uninhabitable levels had decreased to only twenty years, rendering the task of building a Stellar Ark in time nearly impossible. Well, it would have become possible were it not for the dissent groups all across the planet who were now starting to get angry at the emergency planetary government for not doing enough. Resources were stretched to the breaking point, researching solutions to save their world, but the rebel groups of the Southern Hemisphere were now in open war with the United Nations' peacekeepers. Towns, cities, entire member states were joining the rebel movement out to destroy the government and any hope the Drell people had of survival. Another report came in, marked Ultraviolet Priority; Enath sighed, and reached for it.

Both sets of his eyelids flashed open, his jaw dropped, and an unbelieving hiss came from his lips at the news. A spatial distortion was forming between Rakhana and the Asteroid Belt, and a 1-kilomet object was emerging from it and accelerating toward Rakhana. Could this mean salvation? A moment later his more logical mind took over, if aliens came to Rakhana, there was a high probability they would not be interested in saving the Drell, maybe saving their planet's resources for themselves, but not their people.

But a man could hope, couldn't he?

* * *

_High Orbit over EDC103, Aboard CNS Wilfinja_

"Radio Traffic has gone WAY up in the Northern Hemisphere, where few combat zones exist, the Southern Hemisphere has no appreciable changes and appears embroiled in civil war. If what I'm reading is correct, these people have primitive colour TVs and some computing capacity, but they've polluted their world too much to survive to reach the Space Age." Eric nodded at Captain Reynolds, the Captain whose ship was assigned to him for this mission, thanking him for the status update.

"This changes things, how goes the translation software?" The cloaked and stealthed probes had been gated into the System from their Oort cloud several local days before.

"It's going well, apparently according to the broadcasts the Nations of this world united in an attempt to pool resources for a 'Ship of Safety for the Stars' oh wait no that's Stellar Ark" but resource depletion is causing everything from food riots to outright civil war in the Southern states. Oh, and Doctor? The planet is almost exactly like a drier version of Earth, same rotation times and roughly the same orbit time and similar tilt. The species is humanoid, lives about as long as humans did before the Quantum Age, and is somewhat reptilian in appearance. I guess we'd look like that if dinosaurs were our ancestors eh?" Reynolds said, elbowing the doctor in good humour, and because he was getting in the way. "Should we send the contact package?"

"Alright, since I never had facial circuitry and never bothered getting the cosmetic patterns for so-called 'Cybran Pride', I think this can be a safe contact, broadcast the standard Contact Package in their language and then let me make a broadcast, to their entire planet."

"You do realize that's needless to say? The ship's reactor could handle ten thousand times that much power if needed and it still wouldn't hurt"

_

* * *

_

Rakhana, New Hope

"Aliens," President Enath Soirk said to himself "Real aliens… I never expected to see the day."

His secretary came in "Sir, we have a transmission, planet-wide, all channels, Radio and Television, it's repeating, and the Rebel Groups have already requested a five-day ceasefire."

"Approve it, but keep our Peacekeepers on alert, patch the transmission through" Enath nodded and fixed his eyes on the TV screen just as the message began again "Hello to the people of the Second Planet, we are explorers of the Cybran Nation, we are interested in establishing contact with you, and come in peace. We will land our small group of negotiators and scientists in the middle of the largest desert in your Northern Hemisphere. We come in peace and would like to talk. Our arrival can be noted by the trail of our shuttle descending to the surface. Please come visit us if you are able, if you are not, please contact us on any frequency be sending this signal in your language: We Come In Peace For All Drellkind, our translators will pick it up and a shuttle will pick you up, Thank You."

The phone rang, Enath picked it up. The excited scientist on the other end stated that a trail of fire – doubtlessly rockets or similar had descended into the middle of the Sea of Dunes, so called because of the Temperate Grassland that was there, the largest on the planet… apparently the aliens must have come from a wetter world, to call it a desert.

"Tell the Joint Chiefs of Staff that I'm going on a little trip." He nodded to his secretary as she started dialling the telephone. "It cannot hurt the Drell, without help, we are doomed, even if I can only negotiate to get some of us off-world, it will still be something."

* * *

"This place reminds me of the Sub-Sahara, Desert but not quite, except the smog is WAY worse." Eric said, coughing as the shuttle's building beam set up an administrative building in no time at all, only consuming 800 of the 3000 mass stored onboard, approx. 800 tons of a building, counting foundations. He entered and sat down in the well-furnished lounge and took a breath of fresh, air-conditioned air, sighing in relief as he directed the Shuttle via his interface, even as his assistants configured the other aspects of the building.

An airstrip went up next, three kilometres of tarmac set up in under twenty seconds from reclaimed sand by the two Colonial Construction Drones on the shuttle, a number of massive air filters served to make the air in the area no longer hazardous to humans for breathing, incidentally slowly generating mass as the pollutants were harvested and included oxygen, nitrogen and noble gases returned to the atmosphere.

Now, the shuttle constructed a hangar for itself, and eased into the massive barn-like building, attached to the rear of the administrative building, which had the front facing the tarmac.

* * *

"Amazing… how did they set up such a vast airstrip so quickly?" Enath murmured as he looked out from the co-pilot's position in the aircraft, having once been a fighter pilot, then rising through the ranks until he shifted to politics in this time of crisis "I wonder what their tech… pilot, are you seeing what I'm seeing?"

"Yes sir, I think I'm hallucinating, the smog in the area appears to have been cleared away, and that building has a 150-met hangar behind it, likely for their shuttlecraft, in addition to a row of small hangars, probably for guests such as us." The pilot murmured, too busy gaping to make further response. "Hold on sir, we're going in for a landing"

As the aircraft taxied to rest, Enath spotted a small rover approaching from the distant building, a small hologram sprung up from the rover, signalling the pilot to move toward one particular hangar using the universal symbol of direction: the Big Fat Arrow. Only once the aircraft finally stopped and the President's party descended the stairs did Enath truly appreciate the scale of the Airport. The Rover that trundled up to them and started scanning the aircraft, if the beam of light was a scanner, was at least fifteen mets long and wide, and seven or eight mets tall, with two bent obelisks toward the back.

The rover started heading off, then seemed to pause, an obviously alien voice, translated into Drell (Enath could tell, because of the accent) spoke "Sorry for the lack of a ground transport vehicle, the situation will be remedied shortly." Enath frowned _That rover is more than big enough to carry all of us, what is the alien talking about?_ Two double-pronged drones floated from the tips of the rover's obelisks, seemingly receiving material through a reddish beam from each obelisk. They surged forward and began to construct something on the runway, a thirty met long, eight met tall… vehicle, with three enormous pairs of cross-country track pods, took shape in mere seconds. By the time a small ding announced the vehicle's completion, Enath was dimly wondering why his bodyguards had not started coughing in irritation at the ever-present smog that had plagued Rakhana for the last century and a half, considering it had been a whole thirty seconds since their jaws had dropped open—and since the construction had begun. The door, which resembled an oversized airlock, swept open. Enath looked around at his staff, shrugged and entered, followed by his awed staff members, thinking _Why is this airlock so wide but not long or tall? Is this a mass airlock? What was this vehicle type for? And are those emergency hatches on the ceiling and sides? Why are these seats all Drell-sized and shaped for us? How advanced ARE these aliens?_

He would soon find the answers, for the vehicle rumbled into motion, accelerating in moments to what a squad member gauged at over sixty mets per second, or two hundred and sixteen kilomets per hour. Half a minute later, the vehicle abruptly ground to a halt, yet Enath felt no deceleration. Finally, the vehicle's internal airlock door opened, and a synthesized voice asked the delegation to enter the airlock, Enath complied, though feeling slightly uneasy at being under the power of aliens.

Eric, along with a small bodyguard, awaited the arrival of the Drell delegates nervously; it was after all only the second First Contact situation Humanity had ever encountered, and he was leading the mission…

The airlock swung open to the inside of the building, bringing a blast of hot air in, along with a number of the green-skinned, reptilian humanoid aliens, who glanced around curiously. One advanced and extended both hands, palms up, in the typical gesture of non-hostility among humanoid races (he knew, because the Seraphim had used the same gesture to start First Contact). It then spoke "Greetings, I am Enath Soirk, President of the United Nations of Drell, we come in peace for all Drellkind, we as a race are the Drell, what is your name?" The translation device obviously still had a few minor kinks in terms of politeness to hammer out, Eric noted to himself, before responding with the same gesture.

"Greetings, I am Eric Connor, we as a species are called Humans, as a faction, we are the Cybran Nation, we come in peace for all mankind, though the other factions may not agree" It was against doctrine to expose weakness, but the technology level of this species would pose roughly zero threat to any human faction, so it didn't really matter much, besides, it was a good show of faith… "We'd like to open negotiations with your kind, however, we have noted the presence of extreme amounts of pollutants throughout your atmosphere, we would be willing to remedy this situation, we only ask that we be allowed to establish a colony on the surface of this planet in the interests of peaceful interaction and further exploration into this area of space." He knew perfectly well that with the pollutants in their atmosphere, the Drell were backed into a corner, but being Cybran, he understood the feeling of being cornered, learning it from history classes, classes about the beginning of the Infinite War and the Cybrans' struggle for survival. He would extract some things from these aliens, but he knew that it would be Imperialist to press too hard, and if there was anything Cybrans hated, it was to be like the Earth Empire (or the Aeon, but that's another story).

* * *

Three days later, the Cybran-Drell Treaty was signed by the United Nations of Drell and the Cybran Nation, it was agreed that in exchange for installing the massive air filters all over the planet and some mass fabricators to handle emergency food demand, and providing some measure of security by stationing a few commanders on-planet, the Cybran Nation could use Rakhana as a jump-off for further exploration and have discoveries by Drell scientists shared with them. To quote Dr. Brackman "Every species should follow its own technological path, friends, to prevent you from finding your own way would hollow out the spirit of your people…"

The Drell have never forgotten the aid rendered to them by the Cybran Nation. Later, during the Seraphim War, Dr. Brackman himself retreated to Rakhana to hide behind the formidable fortifications of the planet. The Prothean installations of the planet were first uncovered in 3849, one year after the end of the Seraphim War, heralding a new age for Human and Drell alike.

Humanity apparently had a pattern of every other contact going well, because when, in 3790, the Aeon Illuminate discovered the Yahg race (the third contact of alien races by humanity), incidentally about twenty years after the Council did and the Shadow Broker took one from the planet… The violence displayed by the Yahg toward the Aeon diplomatic delegation lead to the nuclear carpet bombing of the planet, all Yahg upon the surface were cleansed by the Aeon, just as the Aeon had cleansed so many UEF and Cybran settlements.

_

* * *

_

Present Day, Sept. 5, 3844, Ni'ihau, Hawaii, Earth, United Earth Federation

Hannah Shepard watched the strange line grow out of nowhere on her screen with growing trepidation, then with mounting alarm as thousands of bombers, of a colour scheme never seen since the last of the Seraphim died emerged from the rift "HQ, requesting immediate recall, HQ, respond!"

The face of the Ops coordinator flashed into being in the corner of her screen "Surface Gate network is engaged, commander, recall in five… four… three… two… one…"

With a flash of light, Hannah's ACU, the battered but not broken ACU of Colonel Hackett, who had been blasted into the shallows by an Aeon nuke, and the ACU of Crusader Williams, who was on an island north of Black Sun, were recalled by their respective factions, even as the thousands of what would later be identified as Ahwassa-class Experimental Bombers levelled the region with their carpet bombing.

_

* * *

_

Intercepted UEF News Report, September 7_th__, 3844_

We here at UEF Daily News have received word that an enormous Quantum Rift has opened over Hawaii on Earth, allowing an enormous Seraphim fleet to pour through. President Riley has been confirmed killed, we present some footage of the enemy we face… (A/N: If you want to see the footage, search Forged Alliance Start Cinematic on YouTube and watch up until it shifts to "Capella, Two Years Later", that's the footage I'm talking about)

Over the next two days, the thousands-strong fleet of experimental bombers would reduce the entire planetary surface of Earth to ashes. The disabling of the Orbital Gates, which functioned as massive relays in the network, greatly hindered the escape of the Earth's population, never mind the fact that the Quantum Rift was putting out enough interference that few transports could get out anyways.

However, it is to be noted that in Africa and Europe, large numbers of UEF and Cybran Commanders, along with almost all Aeon commanders present, managed a stalwart resistance, setting up hundreds of thousands of Surface-To-Air missiles of all three factions, along with a near-absurd amount of shields and significant amounts of ground defence. This fortress of hundreds of commanders was eventually overrun, but not before every single one made it off-planet, the first use of Cybran Relay Nodes in combat allowed a few commanders to keep the entire defence matrix online long enough to evacuate most of the local populations.

In total, 5 billion humans made it through to various UEF worlds thanks to this stunning show of human solidarity. In the greatest gesture of unity since the dawn of the Quantum Age, UEF, Aeon and Cybran commanders covered each others' backs from the encroaching Seraphim swarms. Until in the end, all remaining humans on Earth were evacuated, the fleet of what we now know to be Ahwassa-class bombers now reduced to a few hundred from the thousands that had poured through the Rift, the enormous bases were finally levelled at great cost to the enemy, but we, humanity, shall rise, and WE. SHALL. ENDURE!

* * *

A/N: I envision Rakhana's system as a Sun-like Primary, a Venus-Like Planet, Rakhana, Large Asteroid Belt, two Gas Giants, anther Asteroid Belt, and one Ice Planet.

The Met is the Drell equivalent of a metre; it is theoretically approximately 1.00000001 meters in length (The Drell did not even need a conversion factor, as most rulers were off by far enough that this did not make any difference). One kilomet is, well, a kilometre, basically.

Rakhana is an absurdly Earth-like world except with MUCH less water. (24-hour days, similar tilt, etc.)

Also, character-wise:

Hannah Shepard: Shepard's mother, not that difficult to figure out.

Colonel Hackett: Later Admiral Hackett

Crusader Williams: Ashley's Mother (the Aeon Illuminate is matriarchal)


	2. Operation: Black Day

A/N: Second Chapter, thanks to everyone who added to Story Alert!

Also, ranges for SupCom units have changed. Bombardment Setting gives regular units eight times the range (wildly inaccurate against moving targets, and not very accurate under poor weather either). All SAM and Anti-Air Missiles now have ten times the range (Bombardment setting, only useful against extremely slow units i.e. hovering in mid-air, and makes missiles vulnerable to TMD fire). Artillery receives a big boost, T2 Artillery can now shoot 25 km (however the engagement envelope for mobile targets is only 4x, at 10 km), T3 Artillery can manage a whopping 90 Kilometres (Mavors can get up to 2000 km, global if overcharged). Point defences and units all get between 4 to 6 times range boost as is reasonable (Only in idle or bombardment, they WILL prioritize on nearer targets normally)

I always thought the Supreme Commander ranges were vastly too low, I mean, a tank only shooting like 400 meters? (Then again the units move at like 60 m/s, so it actually makes some sense to shoot at close range, though I still said the range increase is for a separate firing mode: Bombardment Mode)

Aircraft speeds x2: Air-Superiority-Fighters now manage a decent 3600 km/h as opposed to the original half that much. Interceptors pull off 2160 km/h, much more reasonable than before (you expect basic units to pull off more than Mach 1 and top-of-the-line units to pull more than Mach 1.5)

* * *

Chapter 2: Seraphim War – Operation: Black Day

Timeline:

Circa 46000 BC – The Protheans vanished

1500 BC – Krogan Wars reduce Tuchanka to ash

680 BC – The Asari discover and colonize the Citadel

400 BC – Salarians establish first contact with the Asari. Tensions are high

380 BC – Citadel Council Established, War is averted.

500~600 AD –Rachni Wars

1000 AD – Turian First Contact

1300 AD – Krogan Rebellions Begin, Turians take greater role in galactic affairs as the main combatants on the council side

1400 AD – Genophage Released in vengeance for the nuclear carpet bombing of five Turian colonies

1500 AD – Turians join Council

3250 AD – Quarians request Council aid in Geth Uprising, they are evicted from the Council Races

3844 AD – The Seraphim War begins on Earth, unbeknownst to the rest of the galaxy.

For more information on the Supreme Commander side, Google "Supreme Commander Wiki", search UEF in the Wiki search box, and scroll down to History.

* * *

"Are the preparations complete?" One Seraphim spoke in his language, what a human would describe as a guttural, hissing tongue. "We must take our brethren by surprise if we are to survive, and jump onto a human-held world actively fighting the Seraphim Loyalists".

The second Seraphim Separatist nodded "Yes, it is time. Operation: Exodus is now in motion".

* * *

_29 July, 3847, Griffin IV_

"General Hall! We are detecting more quantum wakes to the North of Fort Clarke!" a technician shouted frantically as the quantum sensors spiked repeatedly "Wait… that can't be right, the Experimental units that were marching our way have suddenly turned and begun moving in a path that suggests they will try to cross that mountain range, in attack formation"

Another tech shouted over the din of the Fatboys outside firing incessantly into the distance "Sir, we are receiving a translation package from the Seraphim signatures to the north"

"Well, well, seems there's something God's yet to tell us about, eh?" General Hall "Establish a comm-link; I want to talk to those aliens about what the hell their kind are doing, intruding on OUR turf!"

In but moments, the connection was up, and General Hall stared the hologram n the eyes "What are your kind doing here upon our soil? Were it not for the fact that your brethren seem to be moving to attack you, my Fatboys would already have sent you all to hell in a rain of shells." In his mind, he was wondering if this would be the cliché Separatist group of the genocidal aliens, the ones that wanted to live in peace and eventually would be able to live in peace with humanity, hah, what a joke.

"We are the Seraphim Separatists, free from the corruption of the Way which has tainted our brethren's perceptions, made them bloodthirsty and aggressive, we are here not to fight you, but for our own survival. It would appear that our goals are not so contrary to one another as you think. Harmony to you, brave defenders."

To say that General William Hall was shocked would have been an absurd understatement. Here were members of the genocidal race that was trying to wipe out humanity, fleeing from their own brethren and hoping to start anew… this was SO cliché… that the General immediately ordered Fort Clarke's reserve fighters, Cybran Gemini Air-Superiority Fighters, along with a wing of Broadsword Gunships and a single Aeon CZAR Flying Fortress loaded for bear to provide air cover for the Separatists, he didn't trust them, but if the Seraphim were busy fighting one another, life was easier for him, at least for the moment… he'd be keeping an eye on the bastards, "Establish a connection with the best commander squadron we have, get Hackett on the horn, and have his friends listen in on it, now." He spoke, while thinking _Is it just me or is this sort of situation typical of video games and movies?_

* * *

"So, Colonel Hackett, run this by me again, our plan is to Hold the line, us two, with the superior shields and Triad T2 Point Defences of the UEF and the superior AA of the Cybran Nation while Crusader Williams readies a number of Restorer AA Gunships, establishes Air and surface superiority, and THEN we finish building up on our island and start sending Armoured and Heavy Assault Bots, plus Experimentals, at the enemy?" Major Hannah Shepard was almost sceptical as to the simplicity of the plan, usually, the three-commander squad (an experiment to promote cohesion among the three factions within the Coalition) led by the Colonel (due to somewhat more experience on his part) would end up with ridiculously over-thought-out and complicated plans by the Colonel. This time though… things were different. "Well, good thing we're still following the old build sets for naval units."

"Ah, yes, I must confess that I too find this plan, the plan for the next time we have to start on an island, amazingly simple considering your usual tendencies, which produce ridiculously complicated plans that work without a hitch" Crusader Williams said, snapping out of her stupor and staring at the man's face on her screen "There something you're not telling us?"

Before Hackett could reply, an urgent transmission from Coalition HQ came through, General William Hall's face appeared on their consoles, and he began to speak.

"I don't know how the hell this happened, but those bastards found us. They've made planet-fall and are attacking Fort Clarke and the outlying civilian centers." He paused, glancing at something beside the camera for a moment "This is the end of the road for us, Commanders, Fort Clarke is our last major base of operations, and all of our evacuation routes have been severed. If we falter today, the Seraphim and their lackeys will have free reign to butcher every last human in the galaxy." Hall's face faded, replaced by a map of the Operation Area, showing Fort Clarke in the northwest, and a Seraphim commander to the northeast "We have no other choice but to dig in and hold the line. General Fletcher is already on-planet and leading the defence of Fort Clarke. We want to open up a third front, which is why you're gating in south of his position." A small UEF symbol on an island to the south of the mainland denoted the location of a supporting UEF base. "This is your LZ." An ACU symbol showed up next to the UEF symbol. "There are two Order Bases at this location, and they are providing reinforcements for the Order's assault on Fort Clarke." Two sickly yellow-green Aeon symbols showed up northeast of the LZ, and another showed up further away "You will destroy all Order structures and then push inland." The Aeon symbols vanished. "Continue north until you link up with Fletcher" A UEF symbol south of Fort Clarke denoted some sort of settlement, and another was to the far east of the LZ for some reason. "Once the siege on Fort Clarke has been lifted, the two of you will directly assault and destroy the Seraphim Commander." The Seraphim Logo burnt out "Failure is not an option, Commanders"

Hall's face faded out before the three could ask "Wouldn't it be a _second_ front?"

* * *

The HQ man continued the briefing as the three marched out of their ACU hangars and towards three of the Portal-class Quantum Gates, preferred for its relative comfort compared to the UEF and Cybran Gates. "There are two order bases in your AO, bomb them both back to the Stone Age and link up with Fletcher," The secondary screen swivelled to show two confirmed Artillery posts "There's two Order artillery positions overlooking the channel, destroying them will make your life a hell of a lot easier." Then the screen displayed several squadrons of Spectre Gunships flying toward the island "Aw hell, Order Gunships are inbound, get on-planet while you still can." The three ACUs started to sprint toward the Gates, Hackett was the first one to get there and arrive, starting to fire at the Gunships with his weapons even as they began firing on the shields and at the Gate in an attempt to stop further reinforcements. Williams was the second one through, strafing her ACU out of the way while taking down a few Gunships of her own. Shepard's ACU waited for the Gate to recharge when the annoying HQ man yelled "Damn it! They're attacking the gate, Get in there while you still can!" Gee thanks, Captain Obvious, she thought in irritation. With a flash of light, she made the transit, opening fire on the Gunships even as the Gate collapsed behind her.

"Dammit, no SCU support for us this time… we'll have to rely on engineers" Hannah reflected as each of the three commanders began constructing a Land Factory, the area's established infrastructure supporting their expenditures easily with the T3 Mass Extractors, Mass Fabricators, and Power Plants.

"So, a Cybran, eh? I would've thought you guys were too busy changing the water in Brackman's brain tank…" General Fletcher's irritating voice grinded on her ears as his ugly face popped up on her screen, she tuned it out.

"Ignore him." Dostya said "People like him need to be shown how Cybrans fight. Dostya Out" She nodded her head, and then went back to work.

* * *

"So, another Aeon, God knows we have enough of those here already" Fletcher taunted on her screen, in return, Crusader Williams simply ignored him and his bigotry, though she did remember what happened less than a year ago, the guilt of cleansing the Cybran settlement of New Catalon still weighing on her heavily, though the Princess's command to preserve the second settlement helped, a little, to offset the guilt over the deaths of two hundred thousand Cybrans.

"Ignore him." Avatar of War Rhiza's transmission said "You will show these Order traitors the truth of the Way, smite them in the name of the Princess, Crusader, Rhiza Out"

* * *

"Well Colonel am I glad to see you!" Fletcher said with a smirk "Looking forward to seeing you stamp those Order bases into the ground, Fletcher Out"

Colonel Hackett shook his head with a small grin, turning his attention back the trio's rapidly growing base; all three commanders had already reached Tier 2 and were cranking out engineers, relying on existing defences, the Tigershark-class Attack Subs and the Percival-class Armoured Assault Bots to hold off enemies while they began to construct fortifications. Soon, shore hard points consisting of two Triads (UEFT2 Point Defence), one Miasma (Aeon T2 Artillery Installation), one Myrmidon (Cybran T3 SAM Launcher), one Zapper (Cybran T2 Tactical Missile Defence), one Burst Master (Cybran T2 Flak Artillery), and one Loyalist (Cybran Siege Assault Bot), backed by one Radiance Heavy Shield, sprung up along the coastline, and the Sea Factories they each built started to crank out ships, according to the plan. Quite a few more Mass Fabricators had to go up though, especially when Williams decided to build a CZAR-class Air Fortress to blast the Order artillery to hell and make the enemy begin building Fighters instead of the Gunships and Bombers that constantly harassed the trio's base.

The Order commander wasn't bad, but she needed a lot more practice with her fortifications, practice she won't be getting, as the CZAR located the SCU of a Commander Victoria, apparently the one managing the forward bases, even as a Galactic Colossus broached the surf alongside two Monkeylords and a small swarm of Siege, Heavy, and Armoured Assault Bots, UEF, Cybran and Aeon, all put under the command of Shepard, who left the managing of their island base to the other two as she concentrated on managing the forward army. The CZAR was promptly left at the back of the trio's base to lure in Fighters for the SAM batteries to chew up, and to build Restorer Gunships within the four-hundred-meter diameter flying carrier.

Williams didn't mind, because they'd worked together enough that they figured out Hannah was easily the best at coordinating assaults, Hackett at overall strategy, and Williams for hunkering down and keeping one's turf intact. The three thousand unit cap before they had to start building hideously slow-building, expensive, and energy-draining Relay Nodes was nice too, compared to the one thousand per ACU, five hundred per SCU their enemies could field…

Hackett didn't mind either, though he was also secretly thanking the combined Human-Drell team that had helped develop the Cybran Relay Nodes, it was because of those, supplied by the Cybrans to the best ACU pilots, that Fort Clarke had held out for the past hour, since the trio had gated in, it at least gave him time to contribute four Fatboys to the advancing army.

Fifty Ascendant Mobile Flak units followed the advancing army closely, letting first the Asylum shield generators and then the Fatboys' immensely more powerful shields take any damage directed at them while swatting the swarms of enemy aircraft of all types from the sky with ease. The experimentals took care of all land units, a couple of Soul Rippers flying ahead to clear out a couple of defence lines further inland. As soon as the area was cleared, the commanders received a new objective: Protect the town of Sebring to the north.

The two Soul Rippers in the home base were promptly handed over to Shepard by Hackett, who began work on a Mavor Strategic Artillery even as Williams cranked out more T3 Power Generators and Radiance shields to cover them, in addition to fortifying the new Mass Points they'd just captured to an absurd degree with a group of T3 Aeon Engineers she'd just shipped over with Aluminar T2 Transports. The two Soul Rippers and a second CZAR, loaded up with 50 Gemini Air Superiority Fighters headed north around the air patrols detected by radar coverage and began a standard patrol pattern over Sebring, protecting the town even as three of the Fatboys, having produced their own escorts of Sky Boxer Flak Artillery units, 10 to each Fatboy, lumbered northwest toward Sebring, producing Titan and Percival Assault Bots as they went, the newly made units immediately joining the escorts of the Fatboy that produced them.

"You just gotta love the newer Fatboys" Shepard commented to Hackett, grinning "They can produce on the move, AND they weren't around when we were fighting over Black Sun, eh?"

"I agree" Crusader Williams said "let's leave it there, no teasing on this mission." Losing Black Sun was still a bit of a sore spot for Hackett, but like all other bruises it became ticklish as it healed…

The Fatboys levelled the paltry resistance in their way, reached Sebring via a western land bypass route and defended it, Shepard transferred control to Williams for the coordination of the defence while Shepard took the three new Fatboys that had just pulled up to the assault group, organized their positions within the assault group's advance, and sent the whole lot barrelling north, ordering the whole army to move to a point on the other side of the enemy base. Surprisingly, only one Monkeylord fell to Sniper Bot and Harbinger Heavy Assault Bot fire, along with a number of Titans levelled by enemy Point Defences and units. A literal flood of air units flew toward the forward base on the mainland established by Williams once the final building went down, and the operation area expanded once more.

The annoying HQ man's face popped back on "Order commander Gari is to your northeast, she's fielding lots of Sniper Bots, they have long range and good damage, but their armour isn't worth a damn… got a Colossus heading your way… if you lot survive this, head up there and destroy Gari once and for all!"

"Okay this is getting ridiculous…" Williams said when she saw the sheer number of incoming gunships, bombers, and transports fill the screen. "Reroute all fighter-type units to the front, NOW, and move all unshielded experimentals under shields, then get those Fatboys under the shields too!" She shouted into the comm.

"Acknowledged, cranking out Sky Boxers and Percivals as we speak, moving Soul Rippers to intercept hostile assault force, focusing fire on enemy gunships, remaining Monkeylords will attack the hostile Colossus when in range" Shepard's voice spoke into her cockpit. The scurrying waves of sniper bots were quickly cut down by the sheer number of shells and superior range of the Fatboys, but the Colossus shrugged the storm of shells off without trouble until it entered range of the defensive line. It was being lit up by dozens more Gauss Cannon shells from Triad point defences, as well as several tactical missiles from the TML-4 Tactical Missile Silo there, and was still burning away at the shields of the line. Shepard directed the single Monkeylord there to advance on it, and the two Experimentals began to trade fire, in the end, the 240-meter tall Galactic Colossus finally collapsed, its armour burnt away, its internals destroyed, moments before the Monkeylord would have fallen. The 45000-ton war machine pitched forward, joints groaning in protest as it fell to its knees and continued to slump forward, systems overloading and frying throughout the massive frame. The damaged Monkeylord, one of its six legs trailing sparks and another dragging uselessly, could not get out of the way in time, and had what remained of its 32000-ton mass smashed to pieces by the larger and heavier experimental pitching onto its already heavily damaged frame. All in all though, the defence line survived the attack, and engineers scooted forth to perform repairs and replacements even as another half-dozen experimentals came ashore, the strait being patrolled by fleets of destroyers, cruisers, and battleships, along with several wings of torpedo bombers and Air-Superiority Fighters.

Another transmission from Sebring came through "Commanders, there is another settlement to the far east, we fear that the enemy may attempt to nuke it and are organizing the evacuation of the population now, we request that you hold off Gari's fleet until the colonists can board the evacuation trucks, thank you. Constable Jerry Out" (A/N It's probably NOT Constable Jerry in-game, but then again you only play with one Commander and 500 unit cap in-game)

"Mavor Complete, sending recon flight to find Gari now" Hackett announced. "This should be simple…Build more AA, Williams, I have a bad feeling, and Shepard, be ready to move north to assist Fort Clarke directly, they'll probably need it." He said, even as an Atlantis-class Aircraft Carrier surfaced east of the eastern settlement and disgorged a swarm of Gemini Air-Superiority Fighters, Stork Torpedo Bombers, Restorer AA Gunships, and Broadsword Heavy Gunships. The Summit-class battleships escorting the carrier shielded it from harm, with Destroyer and Cruiser screens further out from the center of the formation. The entire area was soon one large mobile fortress of Air and Naval units, complete with several Tempest-class battleships for mobile construction of ships, a Soul Ripper overhead, Asylum-class shield generators tailing the ships, and several Aeon engineers hovering here and there conducting repairs on the move. His formation would hold the line in the east, on the sea, while Williams coordinated the central defence and Shepard prepared to march north.

A Spook-class located Gari's ACU seconds before being shot down, the five-hundred-meter barrel of the Mavor swung about and extended into the heavens as it prepared for firing. Inside the Strategic Artillery piece, eight banks of magnetic accelerators came to life, as well as a set of four Quantum Mass Adjustors, increasing the mass of the slug immeasurably, so that the kinetic energy the round would have upon leaving the barrel would find itself applied to a much smaller mass and thus speed up said mass, allowing the barrel to only measure five hundred meters.

The gun came to a stop, and the energy stored within it was unleashed. One second after it stopped and the round began to move, a six meter wide, fifteen meter long ferric-tungsten slug, weighing just less than four thousand tons, spat out of the mouth of the enormous gun at three kilometres per second, at a very steep inclination. Though Mavors could in theory be used, with a smaller slug OR a longer charge time OR more energy consumption, as an extremely effective anti-orbital weapon, there had thus far been no reason to do so, though for extreme long range shots, Mavors could manage six kilometres per second – well over two thousand kilometres range, with no changes to stats.

The first hit, dealing the equivalent of eight point six Kilotons of raw kinetic energy and a further blast of forty-one point four kilotons energy of Anti-matter annihilation within the shell, combining for 10000 damage points in one shot to Gari's ACU, which immediately began to run away from where the next shell would soon land, it was too later, however, as the Mavor's shells threw the ACU to the ground and overloaded its systems, causing a reactor meltdown. The telltale ACU explosion in Gari's base came not a moment too soon as a tide of Seraphim air units washed into the Operation Area from the north-east. The colonists at the eastern settlement had barely reached Sebring via liberal use of Star Lifter Tech 2 air tranports to move their evac trucks when the tide of units hit the forward defence lines southeast of Sebring.

Thanks to excessive use of shield generators, the SAM batteries and Flak managed to take down the enemy air armada before sustaining too many losses, and then… as usual, the annoying HQ man was back on the horn, "Seraphim forces are pushing Fort Clarke hard, protect Fort Clarke at all costs" Shepard was strongly reminded of Captain Obvious as she marched her armies northward, Experimentals and Siege Assault Bots leading the charge into the flank of the advancing Seraphim Othuum Siege Tanks, flattening the enemy advance, while her Air Experimentals and Fighter wings provided Air Superiority.

"Oh shit…" Shepard's eyes, along with the eyes of Williams and Hackett, widened when Fort Clarke's Omni Sensors identified seven Experimental-class signatures, undoubtedly Ythotha-class Experimental Assault Bots, there was more than enough firepower there to flatten Shepard's armies and Fort Clarke, Hackett frantically threw every single ground-attack-capable aircraft at the line of assault bots, covered by Athanah-class T3 Mobile Shield Generators and Iashavoh-class AA Artillery, while Shepard organized their own experimentals in formation to take on the enemy. Williams could do nothing but open frenzied fire with the Tactical Missile Launchers under her command.

In an instant, everything changed, with a group of unidentified air units washing in from the north and three of them dropping off a total of twelve land units just behind the Ythothas. All of them focused fire on the enormous Experimentals, six per Ythotha, and two went down almost instantly, the twelve units quickly scooted out of the way and left the four Othuy (Two more Ythothas had been cut down in the time it took for the units to run away) to destroy the remaining Ythothas before they could turn effectively.

"What the hell… are those Command units? They must be using Overcharge, that's the only thing I can think of with that much firepower that fast… WHAT THE FLYING FUCK?" Shepard exclaimed when one of her Spook Spy Planes revealed twelve Seraphim Support Command Units, marked Friendly on IFF, leaving the area on three Seraphim T2 Air Transports (the only ones able to carry 4 T3 units each). She immediately pinged HQ on communications "HQ Why am I seeing Seraphim fight Seraphim? Something you should have told us if only to stop friendly fire?"

General Hall's face appeared on the trio's monitors "Ah, well, shortly before you three gate in, a large number of 'Seraphim Separatists' as they call themselves gated in to our North, followed by a number of Seraphim Loyalists. Since then the Separatists have helped us hold the line, they've made it clear to us that their brethren have become corrupted, and that they're here to help us stop the Seraphim Loyalists. They claim, and this has been corroborated by Cloaked Spy Satellites over Earth, that they have deployed a Quantum Stabilizer, at the cost of five of their remaining commanders, to stop the Loyalist reinforcements coming through the Quantum Rift, which is why we haven't been swamped, they've had to fight tooth and nail to reach us, they have over a hundred million civilians packed into about ten thousand freighters, with only fifty Commanders equipped with SCUs among them, they own precisely five actual ACUs, and looking at what they're fielding, I'm inclined to believe them. Right now, they have only twenty commanders left, and are looking at us for shelter from the Loyalists. Just to inform you, they have agreed to hand one of their top Commanders over to your team to work with you. The upside is that SCUs have better resource generation and the same build rate as your ACUs, the downside is the smaller upgrade count and unit cap, then again, a total of 3500 units is good enough." Hall winced as the bunker shook from a Yolona Oss Missile being shot down by Guardian Strategic Missile Defences just outside the bunker. "Well, what are you waiting for, destroy the Seraphim Commander to the far east, he's got that Yolona Oss and is the biggest threat, use your Mavor on the Yolona Oss, Pronto! We're out on antimissiles here!"

It only took six shells, twenty-five seconds from the first shell being fired to the last being fired, for the Shields over the base to be levelled and the Yolona Oss to be flattened, then A flight of Revenant Bombers ended the pitiful existence of the Seraphim Commander. Gari's base having self-destructed after her death was very helpful to the Revenant-class bombers actually reaching the target, which was running from shield to shield while the Mavor slowly destroyed his base with its absurdly huge splash damage radius. The Ythotha in the base died moments later as a CZAR and five Soul Rippers flew up and blew it to pieces. Similar attacks were performed on the other Seraphim Commanders, who had geared themselves far too much toward offence and too little towards defence, confident that offence WAS the best defence, not accounting for the fact that their main defences to the south had been eradicated so quickly in the air blitz. The shields proved too problematic for the Bombers to handle due to the length of bombing runs, so the Soul Rippers did the work. Of the eight (three more had pulled up) Soul Rippers, only two fell to concentrated SAM volleys before all five Seraphim Commanders to the north went down.

* * *

"It was a hard op, Commanders, but you did it. From this day onward, we are done running from them, we will take the fight to the enemy, and you, shall be the spearhead." General Hall said in congratulations to the three commanders. "Now, let me introduce you to the newest member of your crew, Seth-Thauum" He gestured to a Seraphim standing in the corner of the briefing room, flanked by two Marines.

"Greetings, honourable warriors, I understand that you have fought my kind, however, their Way has been corrupted, become a tool for warmongers, we the Separatists no longer wish to be part of such a way, and so we requested to join you in your righteous struggle for existence. I own a heavily personalized SCU from my days as a mercenary, and I will pilot it gladly alongside your ACUs for future missions. May we prevail!" The reptilian alien said through his translator, his original words sounding like a series of hisses and squawks. "If you want to ask questions, please feel free."

"Okay, so why did all twenty of your commanders gate into such a small area?" Williams was first to ask "Was it for defensive ability? If so, what did you do about resources near the beginning, Seth Sa-ooom? May I call you Seth?" As soon as Seth nodded, Williams went on a talking spree.

Everyone stared at her, Shepard facepalming, it would be a long day, or however long it took until their next mission. If Williams decided to get started talking about the Way, the religion the Aeon were introduced to a thousand years ago by the Seraphim Exiles on Seraphim II, it would be worse than irritating and a long day…

That's it, she would sleep in her ACU as opposed to sharing her barracks with those two, Williams would probably be hyper and annoying all night, and Seth would be exhausted by her and most likely grouchy. At least if it was over comms she wouldn't hear it, thank God for mute buttons, and Seth, if he chose the same choice, would not be exhausted for the next mission.

* * *

A/N: This and the following five chapters (total of six) will talk about the Forged Alliance Campaign, though there's four commanders sharing the start locations and all four factions' units in mixed armies as opposed to the one faction the player chooses. If you like depictions of future battlefields with enormous numbers of incredibly advanced war machines battling over hundreds of kilometres, be my guest.

Most likely at this point, Chapter Eight (Seven if you discount the Prologue) will be a timeline of the in-between years before the Relay 282 Incident (In ME Canon it was Relay 314 not 282) and possibly part of the Incident. Chapter 9 will be the Turian War, and ten-onward will show ME 1 Events (somewhat altered).

Edited October 14, 2010, Changed 1 mass to 2 metric tons for reasonability in experimental and other mobile units' weights.


	3. Operation: Dawn

A/N: Thanks to reviewers and those who added this to their lists. I would like to state here that the liberal use of game play terms such as T2 or 6000 damage is to reflect the liberal use of Structural integrity fields in the Infinite War to distribute medium firepower hits over the entire armoured surface of the unit (does not work against experimental-class weapons or weak weapons effectively).

Also, the Tech levels (Tiers) are to reflect the fact that normal ACUs start off only able to build Tier 1 structures, which are often upgradeable to T2 and then T3. This overcomes the limitations to resources an ACU can carry. SCUs, due to the fact that they carry far less resources onboard and their high build rate, are usually not used in attack forces due to the fact that they spend too fast for the commander to achieve a stable economy without liberal reclaiming or ACUs in the attack force. This is why SCUs are mainly summoned fairly late in a battle via groundside Quantum Gate (which also reduces Quantum Wake size, so recalls are easier, as well as lower amount of energy required to gate)

* * *

Chapter 3: Seraphim War – Operation Dawn

1 August, 3847

Seth-Thauum was a good Seraphim, loyal to the original values of the Way, one who had joined the resistance to the new warmongering policies… Why, then, did he want to stuff one Crusader Williams into his SCU's Light Chronotron Cannon and fire it on Overcharge at any random target that caught his ire?

Probably because she is so IRRITATING, he thought, as she pinged him again asking about whether he preferred using Seraphim ACUs or SCUs, basically a choice of support abilities and raw non-Overcharge firepower or Shield and health, he really was not too sure, as he was not one of the commanders who liked to pilot their ACU into direct combat, perhaps one of the reasons why he survived the long, arduous journey to sabotage the Quantum Rift and reach their current location at the borders of what was now Seraphim and UEF Space.

"Most commanders would vote ACU without hesitation, but I prefer SCUs." He said without a hint of irritation showing through the discipline brought by the Way, privately thinking _I really hope that General Hall human comes up with our next mission soon, before my discipline breaks and I kick Williams' ass for not letting me catch enough sleep the last two nights._

A ping from Coalition HQ came through, and one of his brethren appeared on-screen, informing him of the human's briefing frequency. There was a mission in store for them, his first, visceral, reaction was: _Thank the Way!_

* * *

The humming of the holoprojector powering up signalled the beginning of the briefing, Hackett and Seth broke off their debate on the pluses and minuses of the four Tech 2 Point Defence Guns they could field, the UEF _Triad_ for the most damage and splash, The Cybran _Cerberus_ for the fastest firing rate and instant beam, critical for cutting down Tech 1 swarms, the Aeon _Oblivion_, dealing 600 damage points to the structural integrity fields and armour of the target in one shell with high splash but agonizing reload time, and the Seraphim _Uttaushala_ for more damage than a Cerberus with its beam but no overkill, unlike the other two. Rhiza's and Dostya's visages appeared on the communications screens of each of the Commanders.

Rhiza, her teal-coloured hair swaying as she spoke, went first, as the two's holographic screens shifted to the sides and the central holoprojector for the briefing screen lit up with a map of the Human Quadrant, as everyone had come to call their part of the Milky Way "Covert Aeon Loyalists infiltrated the Order over a year ago. Their efforts have provided us with important intelligence, and the have assisted us in spreading the word and truth of the Princess." She spoke, as a number of green Aeon symbols lit up throughout Order space and became interconnected via a series of green lines. "However, the entire Loyalist network is now in grave peril." The series of symbols and their green lines faded out, a purple Cybran logo fading in over a planet labelled Copernicus "QAI has bee using Copernicus as a staging ground for attacks into Coalition space." The Screen zoomed in on the planet, showing its surface "In an effort to stem those attacks, a group of Loyalists launched a secret operation against QAI's position." The map of the Operation Area showed up, with three green Aeon Symbols on it surrounding a purple Cybran Symbol. "The Operation ended in failure. QAI knew the attack was coming, and it captured three Loyalist leaders." Three more purple Cybran symbols showed up to the rear of each of the Aeon symbols, and the Aeon symbols burnt orange, then faded. "We know from past Ops that QAI will implant them with control chips. If that happens, our entire covert network will be in great peril."

Dostya began to speak, her brow knitted in a frown "the importance of this mission cannot be understated, Commanders. It is now obvious that our security protocols have been breached. There is simply no other way our enemies could've known both the secret location of Fort Clarke and about our covert actions on this planet. This situation must be dealt with before it spirals out of control."

Rhiza took over, highlighting a green Aeon symbol in the southwest of the Operations Area. "Loyalists are still operating on-planet, but they have been unable to launch a rescue mission. You will gate in here," An ACU symbol showed up slightly north of the Loyalist (Green) Aeon Symbol. "Reinforce their position and then rescue the Loyalists being held by QAI." A Green Aeon symbol appeared far to the east of the Landing Zone. "Once they are secure, you will destroy QAI's base." A Purple Cybran symbol appeared south of the prison facility and in the Center North of the Operation Area "That horror of a machine is aided by an Order commander named Celene. She was once very loyal to the Princess but fell victim to Kael's lies." The face of an Aeon commander, with glowing red facial markings and ACU background, appeared in a circle near the bottom right of the Map, three of her bases showing up, one just east of the Loyalist base, one just south of the Prison facility, and another in the Northeast of the map. "A Loyalist spy named Thalia will be your on-planet liaison. She will have more intelligence for you once you arrive. You gate immediately."

Dostya finished the briefing with "Watch your back, Commanders. Good hunting."

* * *

"Looks like Celene's launching an attack on the Loyalists' position… let the good times roll!" The old HQ guy said as the four felt the momentary vertigo for vertigo typical of Aeon Quantum Gates – Cybran and UEF gates were more of a sudden burst of zero-gravity coupled with a sharp yanking feeling, which meant that Aeon gates were the ones most often used in the Coalition for commanders. The smaller quantum wakes associated with smaller cargoes made Cybran and UEF gates more suitable for evacuating large numbers of civilians in trucks and transports, as the Aeon Gates could only send off one unit at a time while Cybran gates could manage two and UEF gates had better structural integrity fields and could be upgraded with a weak but useful shield.

"Good to see you Commander, Celene is currently attacking my position, requesting that you help clean her units out, thank you." Thalia transmitted, the four Commanders fanned out and marched up the valley, sweeping it clean of enemy units in one run. "Thank you, commanders."

"Seth, set up a Tech 2 Power Generator somewhere out of the way of our Tech 3 Power Generator complexes, we'll feed you mass as necessary, there's plenty lying around here after all." Hackett said, setting up a pair of Tech 1 Power Plants to one side of a Mass Point, leaving space for Mass storage, the others doing the same on the four other sides of the Mass Point, then each set up a Tech 1 Land Factory, After that, Hackett moved south to the nearest of the ruined Loyalist bases and began to reclaim valuable mass, energy wasn't a problem from the generation of Seth's SCU and the power plants. Soon after the first T2 Power generator was complete, another one went up, the three human commanders feeling seriously grateful for the SCU's presence, which meant a Tech 2 and Tech 3 economy almost at the very beginning of the op. Two Tech 3 Mass Extractors went up next, soon surrounded by Mass Storage, courtesy of the SCU, with the three ACUs feeding it mass from the wreckage of buildings. The three factories began the upgrade to Tier 2 just as Seth began work on the rest of the Mass Extractors, occupying every mass point available and surrounding each with Mass Storage right after building. Another T2 Power Generator went up before he began work on a T3 Power Generator. The UEF Land Factory reached Tier 2 first due to being assisted by all three ACUs, who would turn around and fire one-armed at enemies while still assisting the building, thanks to the flexibility of ACU joints, even though one arm was always locked onto the building, an automatic measure to keep repair beams from misdirection. The Factory immediately began the production of five UEF Tier 2 Engineers, and was queued to go upgrade to Tech 3 afterward.

Seth set up a Heavy Shield on the front line after putting up a pair of Uttaushala Point Defences. The Cybran Factory's single T2 Engineer started a Burst Master T2 Flak just as Seth finished the shield; he then assisted the Engineer with its work at adding a Zapper TMD and then a TML-4 to the lines. Another two Uttaushala made the defence line good enough that Seth decided to go back to building T3 Power Generators, then shields to cover them.

After holding off several order defences and getting to Tier 3, establishing Air Factories and Sea Factories, with defences, Hackett finally realized something "Seth, are you going to contribute your Factories?"

"Well, sure, if you're not uncomfortable." Seth said, starting work on a Land Factory in the one corner of the first Factory complex conspicuously left empty for him, and an Air Factory in the Air Factory block. "But my main contribution to air units will be Transports, just to inform you, as I have found the other air units to be no better than your own thus far. However my Transports will have more loading clamps."

"Acknowledged" Hackett said, "HQ just released a new point defence, the Ravager T3 Heavy Point Defence, along the UEF tech tree. I'll install some in the front line now."

* * *

Half an hour later the eastern resource base had been captured and Celene's forward base's shields went down, a small blizzard of Fatboy shells rained down upon it, revealing that the four Commanders had prepared a pair of Fatboys for the endeavour. A Galactic Colossus and three Monkeylords marched up and took the fire of the oncoming Harbingers, destroying the Heavy Assault Bots with relative ease (just over a second for the Monkeylord's Heavy Microwave Laser and almost two seconds for a Galactic Colossus' Phason Laser). None of the Harbingers got near the shielded but still relatively fragile Fatboys, which had always mainly been for Rolling Thunder Tactics anyways. The forward base was levelled quickly and efficiently. The four believed in the general tactic of "hold the line, until you smash the enemy in a single Hammer Blow." A good hundred Gemini Fighters and twenty Ambassador (UEF) Strategic Bombers provided all the needed air support.

The Operations area immediately expanded east and slightly north, the HQ man's voice returning to their speakers. "This next area is a real pain, you have to get through this winding path in the mountains, and there's two major enemy bases on the other side, gotta assume the enemy's got the whole area zeroed in, too, so expect heavy resistance, HQ out."

"The Loyalists are held in this building, commander" Thalia highlighted a building for the four "please rescue them, commander, Thalia Out… oh, one last thing, a major Order official is on an island to the North, please destroy his air defences and we'll bring him in for questioning, thank you commander, Thalia out." The transmission cut off.

"Well, Seth, you mind taking that destroyer group and showing those Order bastards the True Way?" Hackett said, transferring control of the small group of destroyers and cruisers he had on hand to Seth, with the response of "It shall be done", then checked up on the progress of the Summit-class Battleship still in its Factory, _only 80%, damn. Ah well, the Salems and Sirens outranged the torpedoes of the defenders anyways, so Seth should have no trouble if he's smart. _He then announced over the horn that he was starting work on a Mavor, having used a number of the Seraphim T3 Engineers to deploy the typical Seraphim shields, which were superior to every other Heavy Shield, even if only by a little compared to the Aeon Radiance. "Williams, hold the line with your Fatboys and GCs, Shepard, get some transports and airlift engineers to the southern Loyalist stealth outposts to build Monkeylords for a sneak attack, or fly in Deceivers and use GCs."

Seth, having listened in on the squad channel, cut in "I have five T2 Transports ready, each can carry four Tier 3 units, transferring control now, two of them are filled already, feel free to build one or more Ythothas to support you in your assault, but if you wish to do so, please ensure you transport over some Deceivers for stealth." He said, even as the last T2 Torpedo Array fell and his Salem-class Destroyers and Siren-class Cruisers hammered the air defence guns into dust.

"Thank you, commanders, we will take it from here, Thalia out." Thalia broadcast to the four, sending a group of Blaze T2 Assault Tanks (hovering, amphibious) and a pair of Aluminar T2 Transports with Harbingers northward to capture the facilities and destroy any Order personnel/ boats which attempted to flee.

Shepard pulled off the sneak attack successfully, so while the Ythotha and two Monkeylords were busy smashing up the southern enemy base, Williams was fortifying the crap out of the nearer mouths of the mountain passes, both on their side and the ones to the stealth bases south of the prison complex. Shepard launched an attack on the facility itself via air to the north, a flight of Ambassador-class Strategic Bombers levelling the SAM launchers of the complex, while a fleet of Broadsword Gunships cut down the shields and anything not too close to the compound. Restorer AA Gunships cleared the skies and eliminated targets near the compound with a flurry of precise Quad Light Laser fire. The single transport, loaded with a single Tech 3 engineer, a Deceiver, and a truck, landed next to the facility, the Engineer and truck offloading, the engineer capturing the facility's systems and the truck rapidly evacuating the three Loyalists. They were supported by the Cybran Construction drones of the engineer out of the facility after their operating tables had been conveyed outside via the engineer's hacking. Onboard the truck, being airlifted back toward home base, one of the Loyalists said to the transmitter from her position on a gurney "You rescued us just in time, Commanders, QAI was beginning the final stages of the AI Implantation, thank you, Mathea out."

QAI sent a taunt to them via universal communication lines "It is unfortunate that I was unable to gather the needed intelligence from my guests, there will be other opportunities"

"Detecting multiple experimentals moving in from the northeast pass, recommend hunkering down until the attack passes" The HQ man said, causing Shepard to immediately plot a route for her three experimentals back to friendly lines, running away from the advancing enemies, while avoiding the still reasonably intact base of Celene's, which they were planning on destroying with Restorers and Broadswords, using a Soul Ripper for a SAM sponge.

"Hear me, people of the Illuminate!" A signal, its strength indicating it was broadcast throughout the Human Quadrant, picked up, showing the Princess Rhianne Burke of today, a tired woman who only wanted peace. "I am Princess Rhianne Burke, Rightful Leader of the Aeon! Evaluator Kael seeks nothing but absolute power; she will only bring death and destruction to the Illuminate with her deception and lies. Rise all you people of the Illuminate, Rise and Fight in the name of your Princess!"

"Princess?" Celene's dumbstruck face appeared on the screen "The Princess is alive… I don't believe it…"

Rhiza's transmission came through "You were told she was alive, Celene, and yet you still turned your back on her… you made your choice, and now you must live with the consequences." Rhiza's face was etched in an expression of sorrow mingled with anger.

"I was wrong… so wrong… forgive me, Princess…" Celene's transmission came back on, tears trailing down her face, before the window minimized due to inactivity after a few seconds. The grey icons on Shepard's, Williams' Hackett's, and Seth-Thauum's screens marched by the remains of QAI's eastern base, coming ever closer to the mountain pass, where dozens of Broadsword gunships laid in wait.

"I can still make things right" Celene's voice was determined now. Suddenly, fourteen of the twenty icons lit up, revealing six Galactic Colossi and eight Harbinger Mark IV Heavy Assault Bots. They turned on the six Monkeylords, marked in orange, which had accompanied them. Shepard's eyes widened as she sent her own Monkeylords, Broadswords and Restorers to assist the Aeon turncoat's units and defences, the operations area expanded northward, while the HQ man reappeared on the transmission screens, isolated from the rest of the systems to prevent hacking into ACUs.

"Detecting multiple Strategic launches, looks like the two lovebirds are nuking each other… HQ out."

The HQ Man's face was soon replaced by the face of Elite Commander Dostya "Commanders, Dr. Brackman recently developed a Quantum Virus, if it is installed, it will allow us to track communications into and out of Coalition Space. This will help us maintain security and secrecy. To install the virus, move a Commander or any Engineer to the indicated area BEFORE QAI's ACU is destroyed, Dostya Out."

"Detecting significant communications increase from Aeon space, along with multiple Quantum Wakes and strategic nuclear detonations. Something big is going down over there" The HQ man said after Dostya finished.

The commanders were still looking at each other, thinking "How the hell are we gonna pull THAT off? It's right in the middle of QAI's base!"

Shepard was the first to get an idea "Guys, you do realize a Stinger-class Gunship has a grapple for Tech 1 or 2 units?"

Seth shook his head "It would make far more sense to use a fleet of Star Lifters or Vishalas (Seraphim T2 Transport) on a suicide run for this purpose, remember, the Engineer need only survive a few seconds after touchdown"

Shepard nodded "True, okay, let's do it, UEF T3 Engineers for superior durability, all in agreement?" Everyone else nodded "Seth, you mind taking the job?"

Seth shook his head "No problem, but I'll need to borrow one Soul Ripper for SAM sponging and a number of Deceivers for stealth."

Shepard noticed the Soul Ripper attacking Celene's Galactic Colossi before it could do much, and sent it crashing to the ground by swarming it with fifty Gemini Air-Superiority Fighters, which took a while, but did the job. Celene's Colossi kept making their way toward QAI's base without further ado and with Restorer and Gemini support.

Celene Transmitted to QAI, but apparently she forgot to turn the settings to the right one "I was wrong to side with you, you monster, I shall atone for my sins by destroying you!"

QAI's mechanical voice replied "Betrayal by Celene was not within the expected mission parameters; however after further analysis my victory is still the most likely outcome of this conflict."

* * *

A few moments later, the air attack started without a hitch, relatively speaking. Of the ten Vishalas sent, five were shot down before they could reach the Drop Zone. One went down in flames as opposed to a controlled landing, but the remaining four dumped a total of sixteen Tech 3 Engineers into the virus installation zone. The Soul Ripper sponge didn't work as well as they'd have liked, because it came dangerously close to killing QAI's ACU before the Engineers could hack into its Quantum Communications Device and send off the virus successfully. Thankfully, Seth managed to direct the massive beetle-esque gunship to attack another target before it could kill the ACU, which was wildly firing Overcharged shots at it, and missing due to Seth's skilful micromanagement.

After the transmission was completed, Seth finally allowed the Soul Ripper to kill QAI's ACU, before its destruction QAI sent one last message that only made it through because of its mechanical nature and thus the fact that all its words would get through before its ACU death could cut off its speech "If you destroy this ACU, another will rise in its place, I am endless" It said, causing an eye-roll from Shepard, _what if you run out of ACUs to install your Quantum Control Interface into, what then? And what if we destroy all the mainframes that keep you in existence?_

Shortly afterward, QAI's units self-destructed, without an ACU to feed them needed energy and mass, the four Commanders began airlifting in dozens of Siege, Heavy and Armoured Assault Bots of all factions to the location of the Seraphim Gate, along with Engineers. Titans stood closest, along with UEF Engineers, and then came the ranks of Harbingers, Aeon Engineers hiding behind the shields. After that line there was a space, then came the Othuum Siege Tanks, finally, the Cybran Loyalist Siege Assault Bots had a say, further away were the Armoured Assault Bots of The UEF and Cybrans, a single CZAR completely dominating the area, holding station over the Seraphim Gate just in case.

* * *

The Seraphim ACU gated in, walked out, and promptly stopped, swinging its torso around wildly before raising its arms into the air in a gesture of surrender. "The Seraphim is ours" Thalia said triumphantly.

"Excellent, excellent, now all its secrets will be ours…" Dr. Brackman's transmissions stated, just before the Seraphim commander messaged the other commanders on the field "Don't shoot! Don't shoot! This is Shas-Thauum of the Seraphim Separatists! I just escaped from Earth to here, where I hoped I could join up with the Coalition!"

"Brother? Is that really you? I thought you died, two years ago, on Earth sabotaging the Rift!" Seth-Thauum's jaw was splayed wide open as he said this, in clear disbelief.

"I managed to get away from my ACU before that final artillery shell hit it, I've been on the run for a while, but just now on Earth I infiltrated the Central Gate Complex the Order-Seraphim Alliance pilots operate out of, they weren't expecting me, so I basically slit the throat... it was messier than that... of the commander next scheduled to gate out, in his unfortunate case to Copernicus to assist with the battle there, and, well, here I am."

* * *

A/N: If this site ever gets a Supreme Commander section I'll move this to Supreme Commander-ME crossover but until then, no. After all, not many of us read Crossovers marked "Mass Effect and Misc. Games" all that often, right? And as a first fic I need to find out what to improve about my writing style, right?

SupCom: Forged Alliance is not ENTIRELY canon (some of the canon is illogical, how can Mathea tell you about the Order Official to your north when she's still in the prison?) but all changes are minor at best

Also, I changed my mind about a previous A/N, you'll know how and what shortly after the Turian War aka The Great Ass-Kicking


	4. Operation: Red Flag

Chapter 4: Seraphim War – Operation Red Flag

_2 August, 3847, Coalition HQ_

General Hall met the four Commanders right after they returned to HQ, having handed over their mixed-faction armies to other SCU and ACU pilots who were charged with securing the rest of the planet. "I know you just returned from Copernicus, Commanders, but we have an urgent mission for you. Shas-Thauum, please report to the Separatist Headquarters for reassignment, thank you."

Dr. Brackman's hologram of his hologram spoke with a pleased tone, a Human Quadrant map appearing in the middle of the briefing screen, Sickly yellow-green Aeon symbols designating major Order "It appears that the return of Princess Burke has unleashed a high degree of in-fighting amongst the Order. Oh yes. Our agents tell us that as many as a third of the Aeon…" Three of the eight Aeon Symbols turned to the Healthy Green of the Loyalists"…have abandoned the Order and now fight on the behalf of the Princess. A splendid development. Splendid."

General Hall was all business, as usual. The map zoomed in on a single planet near the middle of Aeon Space, a lone island in a sea of the sickly green of the Order. "This is Blue Sky, some kind of secret retreat that Toth cooked up when Burke first became Princess. Unfortunately it's not much of a secret anymore and the Seraphim have placed it square in their crosshairs." The map zoomed in and showed the operation area, a series of islands. Two of which were crescent-shaped, forming a cradle in the southwest, one round-ish one in the middle west, a much larger south-facing crescent-shaped island in the northwest, and a series of others near the centerline of the Op area and to the far east.

"Your mission is to get Burke the hell out of there." Another Aeon Loyalist symbol showed up in the western of the two small south-western crescents, along with Seraphim symbols on every other island, even one to the north on the big island, in the far east of the Op area, with the Princess' base "That old hag Kael is already trying to discredit Burke's message, and if they get their hands on her, Princess Burke is going to die a slow and agonizing death. We can't let that happen."

Avatar of War Rhiza's face appeared in a bubble on the map, over the western Loyalist base, while an ACU symbol, for the Landing Zone, appeared just to her east. Dr. Brackman spoke again, "Rhiza is already on-planet and awaits your arrival. You gate immediately. Be safe, my child, be safe."

"Good luck, Commanders, Hall out." The holograms dissolved even as the four Command Units reached the gates from which they had just arrived, audible sighs coming from all four in their shared channel. Seraphim, due to their jaw structure and throat structure, could produce a raspier version of more or less every sound a human could produce along with a variety of hisses and clicks. Therefore, Seth's sigh sounded like a massive steam leak, and about as loud too, causing Shepard to cover her ears, Seth immediately apologized and shut up as the gates began to hum and build up the energy needed to gate the ACUs and SCU.

* * *

"It is an honour to fight by your side one more, Champion" Rhiza said to Williams, who due to her Aeon ACU's improved compatibility to Portal-class gates had arrived a couple seconds before the others, before she switched to a group channel "Commanders, my forces will defend you as you build up your bases, once you are ready, proceed north and eliminate the immediate threat, a Seraphim naval base, Rhiza out." The four noted the abundant mass in the destroyed structures surrounding their starting area and so Seth immediately started constructing a Tech 2 Power Generator out of the way, then deployed four Mass Storages around the remains of an Aeon T3 Mass Extractor. He followed up by deploying an actual Mass Extractor on the Mass Point while the other three commanders fed him mass through reclaiming structures. Another Tech 2 Power Generator went up, followed by another two T3 Mass Extractors, complete with Storages for increased efficiency. The three ACUs got started on T1 Land Factories to the corners of one Mass Point while Seth walked toward the farther Mass Points and started placing Mass Extractors and Storages.

By the time all four tech trees had reached Tech 2 the first Tech 3 Power Generator had gone up, along with a heavy shield generator on the farthest northern point of the Island, courtesy of Seth. Several Triad Point Defences and Oblivion Point Defences (for higher anti-shipping firepower), along with two Miasma Artillery Installations went up to the north of the shield, along with a TML-4, three Burst Masters, and a Zapper TMD. Tier 3 was reached several minutes later by all four tech trees (Though technically a SCU could pull off T3 buildings even to begin with) and soon, Myrmidon SAMs, Burst Master Flak, Miasma Artillery, Ravager Heavy Point Defence, Triad Point Defence, and Oblivion Point Defences, all covered by Heavy shields (Courtesy of Seth), sprung up around the coast, powered by the large number of Power Generators, shielded, on the island. The four commanders had built up a sizeable naval force by this point, forty minutes into the mission. They began divvying up the jobs as they usually did, Hackett as the grand battle master, Williams as the bulwark (she got a good laugh when HQ released the schematics for the Bulwark T2 Shield Boat to Hackett), Shepard as the sword, and Seth as the on-call guy.

"Our radar coverage is showing major fluctuations for some reason, might be something new the Seraphim have up their sleeves…" The HQ man stated.

"It is Blue Sky's crystals, Commanders, they emit a natural jamming field, Omni sensors will cut through the jamming, and so will destroying the crystals." Princess Rhianne transmitted to the four.

"You heard the lady, either get an Omni sensor online or destroy those crystals, HQ out"

"Thank you, Princess." The commanders said, cutting the channel, Shepard spoke first "Thanks for stating the obvious, HQ man."

The first wave of Tigershark-class attack Subs and fleet of Plan B Missile Subs (for extra torpedo power and missile support) slammed into the enemy fleet guarding the small island in between them and the naval base like a ton of bricks. A flight of Gemini Air-Superiority Fighters swept the enemy from the skies as Restorer Gunships and Revenant-class Strategic Bombers reduced the land fortifications and Seraphim fleet to bits of scrap metal, their main guns having been no use whatsoever in the conflict, as there were no surface units. Seth helped with the construction of the first experimental of the four, an Atlantis-class Submersible Aircraft Carrier, which was soon sent north to serve as air staging while A small fleet of Seraphim T3 Engineers took over the island's Mass Points as well as supported the other three T3 Engineers, shipped in via Transport, in building up the island's defences.

Seth really liked playing with Cybran HARMS Torpedo Arrays; they were, in his humble opinion, the best torpedo unit or structure ever to have graced the seas. He also almost instantly fell in love with the T3 Sonar Installations (Mobile) of the three human factions, as the Seraphim distinctly lacked one and could only make up for it with the Yathsou T3 Sub Hunter, which for some reason the Separatists had yet to obtain the schematic of…

After handing over the island's defences to Williams, he asked her to start building a Paragon Experimental Resource Generator so they'd be able to build Mavors and other expensive units faster. Her response was to build a stockade on the newly conquered island, fortify it with eight Seraphim Heavy Shields, and build the Paragon right in the middle. Seth immediately started grabbing anything reclaimable in their controlled area while Shepard took two aggressor battle groups of Othuum Siege Tanks (Seraphim) with Brick Armoured Assault Bot support north to harvest more mass from the Seraphim Naval Base. Hackett cancelled all build orders beyond the units currently in progress at all factories to save funds for the project. Williams proceeded to hand the job over to the few T3 Engineers of other factions the four had on hand and then started to gather most of the the hundred or so Aeon Engineers they had on hand, using their sacrifice ability en masse to attempt to speed up the construction. But even starting at full storage of Mass and Resource Allocation System Upgrades on all the commanders, the four ended up at zero storage and a negative three hundred mass accumulation rate for over five minutes, during which the fleet retreated under Seraphim Mobile Shield Generator coverage (higher value ships get higher shield strengths) and Bulwark shield Boat protection.

But the moment the Paragon finished, Hackett started up all the factories once more, Shepard started splurging on Soul Rippers, Williams started to fortify the crap out of the newly decimated naval base, and Seth started up the first of a series of Mavor Experimental Artillery installations. The influx of new engineers and the nearly limitless resource production of the Paragon made these projects a great deal faster than they would have been otherwise. Another Paragon went up, after the Heavy Shields and fortifications, in the midst of the ruined naval base even as the last structures were pounded to dust.

The Op area expanded eastward, the HQ man on the horn again "there are two Seraphim bases directly to your east, the one to the southeast is pretty standard fare, the one to the northeast is…"

"Commanders, my sensors detect a number of strange units in the northern Seraphim base, and their size suggests they are capable of inflicting terrible damage." Princess Rhianne said, cutting into the HQ man's monotonous voice.

"We're detecting six Experimental Bombers, the same types that destroyed the Earth, if those Bombers get into the air, Rhianne is finished, destroy them before they can get off the ground, we estimate you have half an hour, good luck, Commanders."

"Ahwassas…" Seth whispered to himself in exclamation.

"What did you say Seth?" Hackett asked.

"Those bombers, they're Ahwassa-class bombers, not as much structural strength as a Soul Ripper or even a CZAR, but much faster, our best bet is to send a few Soul Rippers to infiltrate along the northern edge of the Op Area, pound the bombers to dust, and send the Soul Rippers to support Rhianne's main base, at least, I believe it is so." Seth said over the channel

"Alright, Seth, handing over the units now, while you do that, I'm going to get a few Tempest-class Battleships and Monkeylords ready, Good luck, Seth, may the Way be with you." Shepard replied.

"Very funny, Shepard" He had resorted to watching the whole Star Wars in order to catch some "rest" from Crusader Williams' seemingly endless flood of questions. "Proceeding now, Hackett, I need to borrow two dozen Gemini's…"

* * *

"Champion, there are a number of Aeon Loyalists still on-planet, if it is at all possible, please escort their boat to the designated area, thank you." Rhianne requested, before she paused and stated "I have an on-hand Quantum Optics facility, it should be able to cut through the Jamming of the crystals, use the command signal button to redirect it, but note that it can only be redirected once every thirty seconds."

The HQ man popped back up "Commanders, the Seraphim are mainly using subs and aircraft to protect their bases, so we're releasing some 'new' units to you, they've been in R&D for a while, and we hope you find them useful."

"Champion, we are releasing the schematics of the schematics of the Tech 2 Sub Hunter to you, the Vesper, it is a dedicated anti-shipping unit, use it well"

"Colonel, we are releasing to you the designs of the Cooper Torpedo Boat, use it well"

"Commander Shepard, we are releasing the schematics of the Barracuda, a Tech 2 Sub Hunter, to you, use it well."

Seth waited for the Separatists' transmission, but it never came "So I'm the only one without new and interesting units to use? This sucks…" To which the other three chuckled.

The two Soul Rippers easily penetrated the thin defences of the northern edge of the Op Area, shredding the six experimental bombers. The six were still at very low structural integrity due to not being finished construction, so it only took seconds and a hailstorm of Iridium Rocket Packs, Heavy Disintegrator Pulse Lasers, Nanite Missiles, and lighter guns. They led a bloody rampage through the remains of the Northern base before the Op Area expanded again.

"This is Princess Rhianne's palace, as you can see she is surrounded to the North and west, her base has some decent defences, but they won't hold against a determined attack. Protect her palace at all costs!" The HQ Man spoke again.

The Aeon Loyalist boat Williams was smuggling back to Rhiza finally reached its destination "It is good to see that even in times of war, kindness can prevail, however, commanders, I have lost several of my Power Plants and will be unable to continue providing Quantum Optics Support, Good luck, commanders." Rhianne transmitted, causing Shepard to growl in irritation, accomplishing a side-mission earned a loss of support? Damn that stupid Princess…

The Soul Rippers immediately established a patrol pattern north of Rhianne's base and started levelling everything in range, while a fleet of Battleships, Cruisers, and Destroyers of all four factions marauded across the southern section of the ops area, several Monkeylords and Fatboys providing muscle when they encountered islands. Pretty soon, the western Seraphim's base came under heavy attack, _and Rhianne just had to state the obvious again_, Shepard thought "The western Seraphim has lost much of his infrastructure, do not let him recover, commanders!"

"Yeah, yeah…" Seth said in irritation, while directing the three CZARs, complete with Restorer and Gemini fleets, and four Soul Rippers which Hackett had handed over to him against the northern Seraphim. "Y'know, the one good thing about Seraphim Cruisers is that they're hideously easy to kill… even if they have the best AA, I prefer your Aeon cruisers… more durability and an anti-surface weapon, even if weak… Or even the Cybran ones, Sirens, you call them, for a cruiser, that main gun… 'nuff said…"

* * *

It only took a few more minutes for both Seraphim commanders to be eliminated, and half a minute before their units self-destructed. Rhianne was immediately evacuated, and the four commanders gated back to HQ after another two SCUs gated in to hold the region, putting up the command centers, manned posts, that would provide security for the entire planet by organizing local defences for population centers and keeping them online, so as to hold out until more Commanders could be gated in to fight the enemy… there simply weren't enough commanders to establish overall presence on every planet, if there had been, efficient command structure would have been impossible to pull off.

"Colonel, I am sorry about your old mentor's death, Commander Arnold, he was a good man…" Rhianne said to Hackett, who burst out laughing.

"Are you kidding me, Princess? I had a stiff drink with Zachary not five days ago, reminiscing over old times, we got over it, after all, we both believed in peace and order, just went about it differently, and neither of us killed anyone really important to the other, so it all blew over."

"I thought that Arnold was killed by your nuclear strike at the Battle of Black Sun…" Rhianne trailed off.

"Well, let's just say that Crusader Williams, being in overall command on that mission, sent his ACU the recall override codes before my nukes hit his base." Hackett shrugged "No hard feelings between us two."

"That is… good to know, commander, if a bit odd… Harmony to you, Colonel, we shall speak again another day." Rhianne nodded, and the signal cut out.

Hackett opened a private channel to Seth next "Well, Seth, me and Shepard will take on Williams in the simulators for the next ten hours, get some rest man, you deserved it."

"Thank you, Colonel Hackett, this favour will not be forgotten…" Seth yawned, exceedingly widely, though he tried to cover it up with his hands.

* * *

A/N: Looks like poor Seth is finally about to get some sleep…

I hope I solved the Arnold Mystery; after all there were THREE Aeon islands in the last missions of the SupCom campaigns. So Williams was up north, Marxon to the southeast, and Arnold to the southwest.

For the record, the Coalition, which the Seraphim Separatists joined, has, nor will twenty-five years later have plans for total galactic domination, the Infinite War and Seraphim War simply cost too many lives for one generation to blow it over. The four main factions have no desire for war, though the Insurrection does… (Order, Seven Hand Node Remnants)

Apologies for taking forever to update, though I expect the Seraphim War to be over by the end of the next week, the truly Mass Effect portion (though there will be some "meanwhile" moments in between…) will start two chapters later (due to the need for a timeline and Coalition ship specs chapter)


	5. Operation: Meltdown

A/N: My deepest respect to Dragonian for his Fanfic "Survival of the Fittest" on GPG (dot) net, I would like to borrow his idea of "the game" (You'll see it when you get there) and the name of the Steeltip Node.

* * *

Chapter 5: Seraphim War – Operation Meltdown

_6, August, 3847_

"So, next time around for fortification we'll use a mix of Triad, Ravager and Uttaushala PDs, Uttaushala in front, Ravagers just behind with Triads either mixed in or just behind due to the firing curves, unlike the other two's essentially straight lines of fire, Triads are weaker than Oblivions but they fire faster, necessary to make up for the slow reloads of the other PDs, are we in agreement?" Seth said, while playing poker against the other commanders of his squad, _Amazing, it's only been a human week and I already think of them as my squad… Crap_, he thought as he lost again to Shepard. _One would think that such a technologically advanced society would stop using paper for documentation and entertainment… then again electronic records are easier to steal than paper ones…_

"Sounds like a plan to me! But don't forget that for AA we'll be using Burst Masters and Myrmidons, for TMD we'll mainly use Zappers except for the most critical targets like Paragons, Hackett, ready to lose more money?"

"Nah, that's the problem with playing poker against a Cybran when you're non-Cybran, we simply can't keep up with your raw computational speed considering how that AI, dependent upon you, uses unused processing capacity to speed your thought patterns up…" Hackett dropped his cards and quit, so did Williams, once he realized he was alone, Seth quickly quit too.

"C'mon guys, you're no fun…" Shepard complained, walking over to where the three were now watching Galactic Mashers Season 35 (3775 Games, seventy-two years before present), the tournament was held once every five years and had been started as a Cybran Nation-wide sport in 3600, with planetary or, in sparsely populated sectors, sector games occurring every five years (one year before the galactic games) to select the competitors. Some of the designs would catch the eye of weapons designers, mostly from the Steeltip Node, every once in a while, and would be tested, if they were sufficient, they made it to front-line duty. The Loyalist Siege Assault Bot began its career as the private vehicle of one of the competitors, and so did the Renegade Gunship, though that was far earlier.

(A/N: This will come back later in the story, however I think it best to get the Seraphim war over with quickly… So we can actually get to the Mass Effect parts…)

Suffice it to say that much popcorn was consumed by all four Commanders, in addition to carbonated drinks, the staple supplies of show-watching, until General Hall interrupted five seconds before the final showdown between the last two contestants on the field, drawing a collective sigh…

* * *

"We're getting reports that two Seraphim commanders have landed on the planet Hades." A Galactic map popped up as Hall and Dostya's images moved to the sides, a planet almost due galactic north of Earth, on the border of Seraphim and UEF space was highlighted with a Seraphim symbol, with the text Hades beside it. "My guess is that they're planning on launching a major offensive" Several smaller Seraphim symbols appeared throughout UEF and the northern side of Cybran space "and securing Hades is the first step, we're hoping to catch them with their pants down, so you and Dostya are going to pay them a little visit." A red Cybran Logo replaced the Seraphim logo over Hades, and the smaller Seraphim symbols vanished.

Dostya frowned at Hall "for the past three years we have been unable to glean a single scrap of intel regarding the Seraphim's movements, and now we find ourselves possessing this information? It strikes me as rather… convenient"

Hall frowned too "The intel came from a Cybran sleeper cell hidden in Seraphim-controlled space. You saying we shouldn't trust them?"

Dostya's frown deepened "There are few people I trust, especially in light of recent events. But a Cybran would never turn his back on his brothers and sisters, especially at a time like this…"

Hall turned his attention back to the four "All we know is that two Seraphim commanders have started to build Quantum Gates, Even if the intel is suspect, we can't risk letting the Seraphim complete those Gates. If they come online, they'd be able to attack any system. And we can't take that chance." A regional map lit up, showing several fjords extending in from the borders of the map, the ACU symbol in the middle, Dostya's Cybran Symbol to the northeast, and Seraphim symbols to the east, south and southeast "The Op is pretty simple: Seek out and destroy the Seraphim commanders operating on the planet, Brackman and the Separatists have collaborated to give you a Seraphim Signal Interception device, you will be able to tap into the Seraphim's' communications, Seth is instructed to help translate if the translation program has any glitches when used in human electronic systems. We'll provide additional intel as it becomes available. Good luck."

* * *

"All commanders gating now, the Op is a go." The HQ man said, as the four, still waiting for their gates to charge, watched tactical displays show Dostya's ACU arriving on-planet with a flash, and immediately starting work on a Tech 1 Power Generator.

"HQ, I am detecting a Seraphim base approximately ten km north of my position, will engage and destroy." Dostya said, even as the four felt the familiar tug of the Portal-class Quantum Gates and noted the abundant mass in the destroyed UEF base they were now in, immediately following their plan of Hydrocarbon Power Plant, Tech 3 Mass Extractor, Tech 2 Power Plant, 2 Tech 3 Mass Extractors, and another T2 Power Plant to start with a strong economy.

"Hope you're not getting two comfortable, Commanders, you've got your own problems…" The Briefing screen panned west "There's a Seraphim base to your west, watch out for a counter-attack, those aliens, no offence Seth, are sneaky bastards."

"I agree, the Seraphim Loyalists are indeed sneaky bastards, we got ambushed on our way out and we lost half the civilian fleet to the fuckers." Seth gritted his teeth and hissed the last part; his children had been part of the lost fleet, which was why he terminated every Loyalist Seraphim he came across with such extreme prejudice on the way from Earth to Griffin IV, as the humans called it.

"Well, we'd better get to work then, who volunteers to hold the northern pass into our area? And who wants the southeast pass while we go to Tech 2?" Williams, after finishing her first Land Factory and Air Factory, headed south, Hackett, having finished his factories with Seth's assistance (SCUs build so much faster than ACUs that they're impractical for starting battles, they spend too fast and carry too little), headed north. Seth simply assisted the Cybran Land Factory until it hit Tech 2 and then helped pump out a good half-dozen Rhino Heavy Tanks along with a few Banger Mobile AA guns and a Viper Mobile Missile Launcher, all these units were supported by two Mongoose Gatling Bots from the UEF factory and an Asylum-class Mobile Shield Generator from the Aeon Factory, these units were sent north, where Hackett was fending off literal waves of Thauum Light Tanks and Zthuee Mobile Light Artillery units with his ACU, the T1 hordes were no match for the T2 army with shield generator, and was shredded quickly, allowing Hackett, who had sustained moderate damage, to back down from the front lines for repairs and to help build the Air Factory block.

The economy rapidly stabilized into Tech 3 for the squad, just as Williams' position of Tech 1 Point Defences began to be overrun by battle groups of Ilshavoh-class Assault Bots, the strongest Tech 2 units besides Aeon Obsidian-class Heavy Tanks, which were equipped with a powerful shield, a better main gun, and higher speed, but much overkill against low-tier units, with a long reload, about as long as a Viper Mobile Missile Launcher, in fact.

A small squad of Loyalist Siege Assault Bots, under Shepard's control, saved the day in the south and held back the advancing groups of Ilshavohs and Yenzyne Hover Tanks while Seth's first Othuum Siege Tanks were being built. It did not take long before the four fortified the crap out of the ridge to their west with Point Defences and T2 Artillery installations, Mavors in the core base would provide Longer-ranged artillery support if it came down to it. Seth spoke cautiously, even as Shepard's first battle groups of Loyalists, Othuums, and Athanahs, backed by Banger Mobile AA and Restorer AA Gunships, swept across the ten kilometres that separated the two sides "Guys, this feels like a trap, if we kill that last building before we get a Paragon and fortify the crap out of every approach to our base, something very ad will happen… I can feel it."

Hackett backed Seth on this "A warrior's gut instinct is usually highly reliable. Shepard, call off the attack, Williams, begin fortifying the surroundings, omni-directional fortifications around our main base, then start work on a Paragon, Seth, deploy the shields she'll need, I'll handle scrounging up extra mass when the Paragon is actually being built."

The attack was called off, mainly due to the fact that Dostya was not yet finished her objective so there was no real rush, literally. Hackett's way of storing mass was to build a vast farm of Aeon Mass Storage using the Aeon Engineers Williams handed over for the task, building a vast number of Aeon T3 Engineers as well, and waiting for the Storages, including the internal storages of the Engineers, to fill up.

Suffice it to say that between the vast banks of mass, sufficient resource generation, and over three hundred Aeon T3 Engineers building the Paragon, it didn't take long for the most expensive experimental to go up, though by the time it did, the Mass banks petered out. The Engineers had all been sacrificed, contributing their mass to the building, the Mass Storages all reclaimed, and Williams herself was the only Aeon builder remaining in the squad's armies.

A Mavor farm of four Mavors went up next, at the same time as a fleet of twenty Ahwassa-class bombers, schematics of which had been uploaded to Seth's SCU just before the Op. The four began pumping out groups of experimentals as quickly as their engineers were able to build, though it took precisely ONE Monkeylord to utterly level the Seraphim base to the west.

"Alright, commanders, the Op is finished, prepare for recall…" The HQ man's face disappeared in static, the quantum signal cut off.

"HQ? HQ Are you there?" Dostya sounded slightly irritated. "If this is another practical joke then I will not be held responsible for clearing your guts off your office walls!"

"Wait, they actually did that once? I thought it was just a rumour…" Williams contributed, then facepalmed at the realization that the HQ man was so asinine.

"Actually, I meant General Hall, he accidentally hit the off switch on my channel once… Wait, I'm picking up something to your west… It appears to be a jamming device, destroy it, Commanders. A Seraphim scout just flew over my base, so they know my position, good luck, Dostya out."

"I think we should just let the Mavors handle every building in the big stretch of land between us and that Jammer, then blow it up and have our experimentals ready to spread out in all directions."

"Agreed, Seth, have fun with the Mavors." Hackett turned over control of the Mavors to Seth after he said so.

"Wait, I have visual on the device… this can't be right, it appears to be of the same design as a prototype device created by Dr. Brackman and his mixed Drell/Human research team…"

* * *

After the array and entire surrounding area was levelled by methodic Mavor fire, "I have re-established communications with HQ and am preparing for recall… oh no! Hundreds of Seraphim units are descending upon my position! HQ, Get us out of here!" Dostya said, in a alarmed tone.

"Seth, Ahwassas, North, NOW. Looks like somebody didn't turtle enough…" Williams commented.

"HQ, I have visual on an ACU, but it's not Seraphim, it's… Cybran…"

"Dostya, The master has sent me to punish you for your insolence." Hex5's much-hated visage appeared on the transmission screen.

"Hex5… I knew that if anyone were to betray our beloved father, that it would be you."

"I never forget a slight, no matter how small, Goodbye… Dostya… Oh SHIT!" He teleported out with a flash upon sighting the wave of Ahwassas that washed in from the south

Over a hundred Othuum Siege Tanks were in each prong of the pincer attack on Dostya's base, but they were absolutely overwhelmed by the absurdly high yield bombs the Ahwassa Experimental Bombers dropped, the few that survived were shredded by Dostya's remaining, un-reclaimed defences. Dostya herself quickly began to build up her defences again, with support from the two Fatboys which had just rolled into her base and started mass-producing Engineers to deploy Ravager Heavy Point Defences. The Monkeylords and Galactic Colossi helped greatly as well in holding the base against the next waves of Othuums from the Northwest and Northeast

"The jamming has been lifted, however the technicians still have to realign the quantum cores in the Gates, and let the charges dissipate before we can get you out of there, it'll take twenty minutes, hold out until then." The HQ man said.

Rhiza transmitted privately to Williams "Champion, we have detected several Seraphim radar facilities, if you can capture one, we will be able to upload a virus which will disable the Seraphim defence structures for long enough to help you get out, it'll definitely keep their units closer to home."

Williams shared the transmission, and a number of Usah-ah Sniper Bots (Seraphim) took out the surrounding structures before an Cybran Engineer zoomed over (it had slightly better top speed than the UEF, Aeon and Seraphim engineers) and captured the facility. Seconds later, all the Seraphim Point defences, SAM batteries, and Flak guns self-destructed, vanishing on radar. The fleet of Ahwassas took down the Ythotha Experimental Assault Bots patrolling in front of each Seraphim base. A steady procession of Galactic Colossi, Monkeylords, Fatboys, with Flak escort, moved in behind the bombers, after the Othuy Energy Signatures settled down, and mopped up what was left before proceeding toward the primary Seraphim bases to the far northeast.

The Ahwassas, Soul Rippers, and Supporting CZARs levelled the surrounding Seraphim bases one by one under Seth's skilful control, while Williams took the northern prong of the new attack force, an army of Armoured Assault Bots with Restorer and T3 Mobile Artillery support, and Hackett rained down death from above via precision Mavor fire, taking down resisting Ythothas left, right and center. Dostya provided Gemini Fighter screens and Revenant Strategic Bomber support for all four strike forces.

It didn't take very long before the two Seraphim Commanders were found and pounded into the ground by a Galactic Colossus Seth now controlled. Everything else the two had had been destroyed, so it was only them left. "Let me do this myself." Seth said, once Dostya turned on another Quantum Jammer to stop the two from recalling, turning the tables

Hackett nodded, remembering the names of the traitorous commanders responsible for Seth's children's deaths, and matching them up with the IFF identity signatures of the two they now faced. "Handing over a Galactic Colossus now, Seth, have fun."

Seth nodded gravely, then the channel winked out as he assumed direct control of the 240-meter, 45000-ton war machine, even turning on its external speakers for dramatic effect, which he deemed appropriate

"I AM THE VANGUARD OF YOUR DESTRUCTION" He roared, the vast speakers pumping out the sound at two hundred and eighty decibels, as he charged both tractor claws to high, lifting one 8000-ton ACU off the ground with its sheer power, before cutting the power after the ACU rose, still firing into the Colossus' armour desperately, and letting it fall a short distance before turning it into a drop-kick that sent the ACU smashing into the side of a cliff at high speed, then he slugged the other Seraphim ACU with the Colossus' right arm in a vicious right hook. The machine went flying too, and then he tractored it back and punched it into the air, then booted it towards the other, which was just now getting up from its position at the bottom of the cliff.

The two crashed together with an almighty crunch that sent both crashing to the ground. The ACUs found them gripped once more in the tractor claws of the Colossus and were smashed together, repeatedly, until they started smoking. Then Seth ascended to the top of the cliff, dropped the battered ACUs off it, and followed with a leap from the Colossus.

Forty-five thousand tons of armour, weapons, pneumatics, hydraulics, and circuitry landed squarely on top of both ACUs, crushing them and triggering reactor core meltdowns in both. The hardened structural integrity fields of the Colossus shrugged off the dual fifteen-kiloton blasts like they were nothing, the monitor only reading 7000 points worth of damage to the Colossus' 99999 Points of Structural Integrity.

"Ah, the benefits of hardened Structural fields…" Seth said, laying back in his ACU's control chair "Too bad those idiots didn't have Power Generators hidden away somewhere, Overcharge shots could have had a chance of taking the Colossus down before it could fry them, then I would have just flown an Ahwassa plus an Ambassador over…"

"Why an Ambassador and not a Revenant?" Williams asked, considering how Revenants were slightly more manoeuvrable (A/N Not in-game but the shape of the craft suggests it… compared to the Aeon and Seraphim Flying Wing designs and the UEF's smaller airfoils)

"A single ACU Death nuke would kill a factory-standard Revenant or any other strategic bomber besides an Ambassador. I wanted the Strategic bomber to be able to loop back and kill the other ACU if need be. Ahwassas are NOT good at turning quickly." Seth said at the same time as Hackett, they chuckled at each other afterward. Seth's chuckle was more of a hissing noise.

"Alright, the gates are charged and locked in, prepare for recall in five, four, three, two, one." The HQ man stated, moments after several SCU pilots arrived on-planet for hold and secure purposes. The three ACUs and a customized Seraphim SCU vanished in a flash of light.

* * *

"So, let's get back to that Galactic Mashers final" Shepard said eagerly once the four had disembarked from their Command Units and gone through debriefing.

They watched as one contestant's heavyweight four-legged walker was slowly beaten into the ground by the other's medium-weight gunship, trading fire in the rubble of the city terrain fabricated for the competition. The walker featured four laser cannons arranged in two pairs on the sides of the torso piece, the four legs strangely reminiscent of a Brick Armoured Assault Bot's legs, scrabbling from cover to cover, taking pot-shots at the gunship circling around the battlefield, which bore a strong resemblance to the Helicopter Gunships used in the twenty-first century, complete with chin Chaingun, missile pods, and two _propeller_ pods. An odd design, but one which apparently functioned well, as it slowly wore down the opponent before it could be destroyed.

The games involved designing a war machine around a reinforced cockpit (with its own shields), the machine could be ultra-light, under a hundred tons, light, one to two hundred tons, medium, two to four hundred, heavy, four to six hundred, or ultra-heavy, six hundred to one thousand tons. Epic machines were rarely seen, only in matches where no clear winner resulted did the Board decide to use the backup designs every pilot in the game had for Epic-class machines, those over one thousand tons in weight.

"What I really love about this game is the fact that it gives Scientists so much inspiration, there's a reason the testing grounds on the Steeltip Capital World are used so much, and that's how we manage to match you guys in technology despite having a smaller population and so fewer researchers. The Brick was said to come from a merging of that guy's walker and one of the early experimentals back near the middle of the Infinite War." Shepard spoke up, as the four made their way back to their bunks.

"Whatever, though I must say I find human beds more comfortable and softer than Seraphim sleeping mats for some odd reason…" Seth said completely randomly, still thinking the walker should have won that match. "What? Why are you all staring at me like that? Something I said?"

* * *

A/N: Credit for the idea of Galactic Mashers goes to Dragonian. I had to find some leisure show that would make sense in the 3800s. It wasn't easy, but Dragonian's was the only one around…

Don't worry, only two more missions in SupCom: Forged Alliance to go, then we'll have a timeline piece and/or Turian Contact (aka the Relay 282 Incident).

(FYI: 282 is the number of my favourite Pokémon, and I'm quite certain it is one of if not THE most popular Pokémon among Pokéshippers.)


	6. Operation: Mind Games

A/N: Thank you reviewers! Thanks for the critiques too, I appreciate them very much!

The following will actually provide an advantage in understanding the story. It will be told in-story eventually, but at a much later date, you don't want to miss out.

It seems most people don't like my listing of HP numbers. The HP bar is not as simple and fixed as in-game, it is merely a display of how a unit's structural integrity fields and underlying armour are doing. The occasional citation of actual values is to emphasize the fact that hardened structural fields can pulse overcharge and negate massive blasts, but are less effective against weaker beams (why do you think the human factions used more beam weapons in Forged Alliance?) a Monkeylord beam is "only" two kiloton per second (8.368 Terawatt rating) yet it does 4000 damage per second while an ACU Meltdown is 15 kilotons yield yet only does 3500 damage in one blast.

For those unfamiliar with Supreme Commander, more complete unit descriptions will eventually be available… FROM THE TURIAN PERSPECTIVE as in:

"Saren's jaw dropped as he watched the 160-meter tall, six-legged war machine march past his cover, squashing buildings underfoot as it went, a swarm of what HQ had designated 'Mech Infantry' milling around its legs, protecting it, as the enormous laser on top opened fire at an unseen target, swinging from left to right steadily. He felt his armour get uncomfortably hot from the exhaust of the enormous machine as he dragged his wounded body down to the basement of the building he was in, praying that no enormous leg would follow him down. He had already watched his entire unit be methodically torn to shreds by a few of the Mech Infantry units, and had absolutely no desire to throw his life away uselessly."

Or something similar… and you wonder why Saren was such a human-hater… There are other reasons, but in the past, Saren was merely a Turian Spec Ops soldier… Same reason why Shepard hates Thresher Maws if he's Sole Survivor background.

* * *

Chapter 5: Seraphim War – Operation Mind Games

9 August, 3847

"Another day, another Op… The price of being known as the Elite Four…" Seth sighed, then, noting the look on Williams' face, said "What? I was a top-level commander in the Separatist Army, the SCU is just a personality quirk of mine… and you guys were the Elite Trio before I came along, right?"

"Yes, well, wonder where we're headed next…" Shepard said, blinking owlishly at the randomness of the statements.

Princess Rhianne's visage popped up on the briefing screen along with that of Doctor Brackman. "The Quantum Rift the Seraphim used to initially cross into our universe if unstable, which has prevented them from summoning reinforcements. We have learned, however, that they are constructing a Quantum Arch in an effort to stabilize the Rift. When the arch is completed, the Seraphim will be able to call forth untold numbers of reinforcements." She paused, glancing at Doctor Brackman as if waiting for him to speak, then continued "We cannot allow that to happen."

Dr Brackman chimed in, "We have initiated raids against the Seven Hand Node, seizing any intelligence that might be useful. Oh yes. In one of those raids, we learned that QAI's Primary Mainframe is on Pearl II" a Purple Cybran symbol popped up over a planet on the eastern edge of QAI-controlled space. "QAI must be destroyed, my child, must be destroyed. I will accompany you to Pearl II and personally shut it down. Oh yes, We shall then use its Gate codes to gate directly to Earth, bypassing the other systems."

The Princess nodded "This is our only chance to destroy the Arch before it is operational. If we are unable to get those codes, we have no hope of reaching Earth, the surrounding systems are simply too heavily defended." Yellow Seraphim Symbols popped up and flashed red all over Seraphim-held space, except for the friendly orange stretch that designated Separatist-held territory, which seemed pathetically small…

Dr. Brackman spoke once more "QAI is an abomination. I was wrong to have ever constructed it. So wrong. Oh yes. Too many mistakes that must be overcome. But this is one I can correct. One I will correct. No matter the cost." The Screen zoomed in to show the planet revolving slowly, displaying QAI's base area as part of the eastern shore of a vast ocean that covered well over half the planet's surface.

A Operations Area map popped up. "Commanders, you will gate in and establish a beachhead" said Princess Rhianne, an ACU symbol appearing midway down the western shore of the Op area "Once the area is secure, Brigadier Fletcher will join you, followed by Dr. Brackman." Purple Cybran symbols appeared to the northeast, east, and southeast, the eastern one winked out, replaced by a UEF logo. As the southern Purple Cybran logo winked out, a red Cybran logo appeared to the southwest of the Commander.

"I will see you soon, my child, see you soon." The briefing screens faded to black as the commanders made their way toward the Quantum Gates.

* * *

After a typical start-up, at least, what was typical for the four and the deployment of some Tech 1 Point Defences encircling the passes into their base area, they went about the task of methodically fortifying the crap out of all possible routes to their base. Following this, the first experimental units got started, a Monkeylord and a Fatboy. They rolled out toward the first firebase Hex5 owned, directly to the east of the four's core base area. Needless to say, the three Mass Points there quickly came under their control. Williams proceeded to add all the fortifications she deemed necessary to that region, Myrmidons, Ravagers, Triads and Uttaushala popping up all over the place. The four commanders took down the other northern Hex5 firebase in similar fashion and garrisoned it, and then they moved the Fatboy south toward the Prisoner Of War facility.

The two hundred meter Mobile Factory rolled along slowly, along with a supporting army of Banger Mobile Flak, Harbinger Heavy Assault Bots (Aeon) and Brick Armoured Assault Bots. The enormous guns of the Fatboy laying waste to all resistance, any that got in close immediately being dealt with by the Bots, and there were plenty, considering Hex5's liberal use of Deceiver Mobile Stealth Generators along with Fire Beetle Mobile Bombs. A Monkeylord would not have had a problem by using its Heavy Electron Bolters, but a Fatboy's only close-in weapons, the two Hell's Fury Riot Guns on its flanks, could not fire forward effectively nor deal with medium-sized units as effectively. After all, Fatboys were mainly intended for use as support units, considering the fact that they had longer range and much faster damage rate compared to a T3 Mobile Heavy Artillery, though far less than the artillery-type installations and most of the Battleships. They were also, relative to a Monkeylord, Ythotha, or Galactic Colossus, absurdly fragile, though they weren't for the same role anyways, acting as artillery plus mobile factory.

The passing of the group of units was marked by a trail of smashed-up pieces of units, mostly Fire Beetles and Deceivers, mixed in with a few pieces from Wagner Amphibious Tanks. The wrecks would have remained intact, were it not for the Fatboy's enormous treads… A T3 Engineer was produced on the spot to capture the POW facility, from which Loyalist commander Amalia hijacked an Aeon SCU, her SCU.

"I had already extracted all useful information from the Loyalist; she is little more than a husk." QAI intoned once this occurred. Amalia was sent back to the main base to assist the four commanders, escorted by a squad of Bangers, Harbingers, and a pair of Athanah Heavy Shield Generators. She made it without incident, the twenty Bangers cutting down the Whailer Heavy Gunships and Renegade Gunships without mercy, protected by the Athanahs.

"You gotta wonder why he kept Amalia's SCU in that facility, ego, maybe?" Shepard wondered, directing her Fatboy to roll to the western pass into QAI's base, which was also to be Fletcher's LZ. "Williams, how's that Paragon going? I can't build shit right now because of that stupid project."

"The Whailer remains are very helpful, as are the firebase ruins, in terms of meeting mass demand. I'm sending spy planes to look for the third one now, send a company of normal units, don't use the Fatboy or Monkeylord, alright? I need that mass to finish up this Paragon, then I can build another one to the north of our main base using its resource generation." The first Paragon was to the south of their main base… behind absurdly heavy defences.

The Spook-class Spy Planes took mere moments to locate the last firebase, to the south of the main QAI base, Shepard elected to send the force that was escorting Amalia, along with most of the Bots escorting the Fatboy, to take care of it. The single Monkeylord she had on the field took up the escort duty while the Fatboy continued pounding all advancing units into oblivion.

She launched the attack with a wave of Harbingers, followed by a horde of Brick and Percival Armoured Assault Bots, backed by Athanahs and Bangers. The firebase was destroyed and quickly harvested. The mass made the Paragon's construction speed up considerably, and in the end, the stupid Experimental Resource Generator finally finished constructing.

"It was about time…" Hackett stated in irritation, things were so much faster before the Paragon had been introduced… though now it was more of a matter of "Power Overwhelming" in Experimentals.

One Ahwassa Experimental Bomber was all that was needed once the Yolona Oss was prepped by Seth, having just received the schematics for the Experimental Strategic Missile Silo. The bomb took out the Guardian Strategic Missile Defence in QAI's base in one shot, due to the idiocy of the AI, not having put shields over it, and the Yolona Oss missile was in the air moments BEFORE the Ahwassa's bomb impacted the structure, instantly vaporizing it. The Ahwassa didn't even get shot down as it took a stately loop to the south, over the friendly force of Fatboy, Monkeylord, numerous bots and Flak units, and returned to base, though its reactors did not require fuel, unlike non-experimental aircraft.

The Yolona Oss missile, with a directed net yield of three hundred Gigatons, would deal a net damage of around 1,500,000 points to even the most overcharged of structural integrity fields. The net result was that anything caught in the inner blast radius would be instantly vaporized, with the blast stretching out to up to five kilometres before being undetectable in blast damage, the only threat being the seismic shockwave of the directed energy, quantum annihilation device.

In comparison, the standard Strategic Missile detonation was a directed two-gigaton device, and did 70,000 damage, on average, to structural fields. It was still strong enough to overwhelm all but the hardiest of experimentals in one blast, but not as much absolute annihilation as the Yolona Oss could pull off.

Essentially, the QAI base was completely vaporized, at least the core areas, the outermost fringes were merely destroyed, aircraft crashing, units falling, and structures frying as the shockwave and energy pulse reached them. Fletcher gated in half a minute later, after the residual heat wave had dissipated somewhat (the wonders of quantum annihilation devices). "About time, commanders, you sure took your sweet time didn't you? Please provide me with air cover while I build up a base."

"Ungrateful bastard." Shepard huffed in annoyance "Seth, you get to handle his air cover, remember, his survival is good, but not completely mission-critical."

"Confirmed, rerouting Geminis, Athanahs and Restorers now" Seth intoned, before the channel was abruptly interrupted by the rude HQ man.

We're detecting large enemy strike forces incoming to your south, there are multiple experimental-class signatures mixed in with the units, be careful, HQ out.

"Well good thing I thought to fortify that area beforehand, huh?" Williams said. "Hackett, give me Soul Ripper support and some Restorers to patrol the southern pass, also, if possible, give me a Fatboy to hold station and provide Air Staging for the Restorers. Put in a couple of Galactic Colossi or for escort duty, will you?"

"Can do, Seth, hold Fletcher's position, you are authorized to use as many factories as you need, so long as they weren't producing something else at the time." Hackett said, normally, the factories were divvied up to the commanders, rarely did one or two take near-total control. "Shepard, how's the Soul Ripper and Ahwassa fleet doing?"

"We have 6 Soul Rippers and 5 Ahwassas so far, more are in-progress as we speak." Shepard responded, while Williams slowly beat back Hex5's advancing units via sheer Air superiority, maintained mainly by the Soul Ripper 's Iridium Rocket Packs annihilating large swathes of Banger Mobile AA at once, while the Restorers and Disintegrator Pulse Lasers on the Soul Ripper tore at heavier units, especially Experimentals.

"I have three Scathis Experimental Rapid-fire Artillery units prepped and ready, where should I send them?" Hackett said.

"Leave them at the outpost just west of Fletcher's position, QAI's main base is to the north, so that's a good place to park them, keep them under shield cover though..." Hackett ordered.

"I'm at Tech 3, starting up my economy" Fletcher said "Keep the air cover, Commanders." They didn't bother saying otherwise; the only reaction was Shepard starting up a Salvation Rapid-fire Artillery Installation in the northern outpost, covered by many, many shields. The swarm of engineers would only take a few minutes to construct the massive gun. In the meantime, the four built more assault-type experimentals and waited.

"The master is endless, his wisdom infinite, you will never defeat him!" Hex5 announced over the public channel, causing a wave of laughter among the commanders.

"Looks like Hex5's using Spiderbots, be careful, Commanders." Fletcher changed the channel to only Hackett "Gotta be careful, colonel, you think the Aeon and Cybrans are gonna let us have peace once this mess is over? We gotta be ready for them once the Seraphim are gone, remember, colonel, the blue of the UEF, that's what matters, that's all that matters..."

* * *

"Dr. Brackman's Loyalty Program enslaved billions, that is his shame." Hex5 said, causing a snort from Shepard as she effortlessly took down the surrounding minor installations Hex5 had around his base.

"Beginning work on a Fatboy, commanders, Hex5 has his ACU under cloak, I can't spot him, please send some Spy Planes to confirm his location." Fletcher said, Shepard snorted.

* * *

Meanwhile, Hackett received a transmission from HQ "Colonel, keep an eye on Fletcher, I suspect something is wrong with the man and it'll probably be a nasty surprise, good luck, Colonel, Hall Out." General Hall closed the line, leaving Hackett wondering...

* * *

Completely unaware of Hackett's mental debate, Shepard stated "I'll do this the easy way..." An Ahwassa flew toward the main base of Hex5, followed by a number of Revenant Strategic Bombers and another Ahwassa. The first soaked up the SAM fire without trouble, the Revenants passing safely, and the trailing SAM fire being taken by the trailing Ahwassa, also without significant trouble. The first Ahwassa bomb took down a large chunk of the shields over the first Guardian SMD; Revenant-dropped bombs took down the shields and battered the Strategic Missile Defence into oblivion. The second Ahwassa swung toward the next SMD, in the south-southwest of Hex5's base, and blew the unshielded installation to dust in one hit. The first Ahwassa and the Revenants swung around and took down the third SMD, which was under fully upgraded Cybran shields. A swarm of Gemini air-superiority fighters started tearing into the air fleet, but it was too late as the second Ahwassa began a bombing run toward the last, unshielded, Guardian SMD.

The second Yolona Oss missile, saved until this moment, slammed home right after the two battered but intact Ahwassas left the area, the Revenants all having fallen to Gemini and Myrmidon fire. The final transmission from Hex5 sounded like the typical slave "Wait... Master!"

What remained intact in Hex5's base soon self-destructed, before the first pair of Fletcher's Fatboys even reached the base. He transmitted to Hackett again "The list of friends just gets shorter and shorter, doesn't it, Colonel? We gotta watch our backs, General Hall's basically capitulating to the Aeon and Cybrans, never mind these so-called Seraphim Separatists. We gotta stand by our own, Colonel, Fletcher Out."

Dr. Brackman transmitted as Hex5's ACU mushroom cloud rose into the air "And so a traitor dies... so much loss, so much sorrow..."

"Brackman's on-planet and moving to your position, now get up there and destroy that damn AI once and for all!" the HQ man, who Shepard and Hackett had nicknamed Captain Obvious, said, as the briefing screen showed Brackman's Megalith walking its way across the ocean floor toward the four's base.

"If you can get me close enough to QAI's primary mainframe, I will be able to destroy it." The doctor said.

"Use the command Signal button to order Brackman to move to the designated location, the Signal can be used as many times as necessary. HQ Out"

"Dr Brackman, it will be a true pleasure killing you." QAI's mechanical voice intoned viciously.

"I'm picking up multiple experimental-class signatures inbound from the north... this can't be right, they're reading as Aeon and UEF experimentals..." The HQ man said.

"The Seven Hand Node was most proficient at acquiring your weapons schematics" QAI answered proudly.

"Seth, use the Yolona Oss on the naval base, we can't risk destroying the mainframe before Dr. Brackman can deal with QAI, or he'll just escape, I'm Cybran, I know these things" Shepard ordered. "Hackett, get more Mavors and Air Experimentals up, Seth, hold the beachhead near Fletcher's base and coordinate the Salvation artillery fire, all our Spy Planes have been released to your control. Good luck. Williams, hold the line, you are free to issue orders to the Scathis units, and your orders will have priority over Seth's. Good luck."

"I'm guessing you're taking the Soul Rippers on a rampage?" Williams said. "Well, good luck, leave the CZARs for my defence though!"

"If Doctor Brackman could not control me what chance do you have? I am endless." QAI spoke again.

"Can someone block that stupid channel?" Shepard said in irritation.

"Uh, no, it's _the_ public channel, not jammable." Seth said, with a shrug. Shepard merely sighed

* * *

Although there were large numbers of Geminis, Myrmidons and Bangers, plus several hostile Soul Rippers and CZARs, Shepard's swarms eventually achieved Air Superiority. Shepard used swarms of Geminis and the Zealot missiles Restorers were equipped with to deal with Experimentals and Fighters respectively, using the Restorers as ground-attack as well against shield installations, ordering them to fly low enough to get inside the shields. Many Restorers were taken down by repurposed surface-to-surface weapons of QAI's army, as all beam and higher speed projectiles could tilt upward far enough to be viable as low-altitude anti-air. However, as soon as the shields went down, the Soul Rippers completely blew everything else apart with their Iridium Rocket Packs. Mavors coordinated by Hackett provided assistance, while the Salvation, plus two Scathis units shredded the eastern side of QAI's base in a hail of artillery shells, the Scathis units firing once per two seconds, cycling their six enormous barrels, and the 540,000 ton Salvation cycling once per three seconds. Control of the Mavors had been divided up, One each to Williams, Seth, and Shepard for direct support, and the remaining three belonging to Hackett, who would provide more extreme support fire. Seth's Mavor took down the shields on the east side of the QAI base while Shepard methodically chewed away at the west side with Soul Rippers, Geminis and Restorers, a CZAR provided Air Staging, and Spook-class spy planes helped detect QAI's Monkeylords, which were equipped with personal stealth. Seth simply flew one flight of Spooks over to check for shields and began battering.

The moment the shields went down a hail of Salvation Artillery bomblets, along with the massive blasts of Proton Artillery shells, from the two Scathis units, saturated the target area, smashing units, structures, and aircraft caught in the deluge. The creeping barrage marched its way up the east side of QAI's base, eviscerating all but the sturdiest structures, which had their structural fields overwhelmed, began taking actual structural damage (A/N This is called the RED ZONE OF THE HEALTH BAR) and began smoking, some parts catching fire. The CZAR Seth still controlled moved up and took the remaining buildings out.

It really did not take long until the last of QAI's units were eliminated, at least, so said the Soothsayer Perimeter Monitoring systems and Omni Sensors the four planed everywhere. They agreed to move Dr. Brackman to the designated area near the QAI Mainframe, escorted by a force of Geminis, two Fatboys, four Monkeylords, and two Galactic Colossi. The force unsurprisingly made it without incident, and the final showdown between Doctor Brackman and the Quantum Artificial Intelligence began.

"Thank you my child, I shall take it from here… It's just a simple matter of interfacing…" the Doctor announced.

"You are an old fool, it was the Seraphim that made me what I am, not you!" QAI said indignantly, if that was even possible for an AI.

"A father always knows the child's weakness, there is always a weakness" Brackman replied sagely, the specially fitted missile launcher on his Megalith firing a missile into the air, which split into 8 smaller missiles and surrounded the Mainframe with an electrical net.

"You can never… what are you doing? That is not possible." QAI said, a new emotion running through its mechanized mind, one which it discovered to be pure fear. All its contact with the Quantum Realm was utterly sundered, the generators and infrastructure was already starting to overload… The machine screamed as its consciousness disintegrated under the absurdly huge contained EMP blast, followed by millions of firewall algorithms and finally hundreds of kill switches, planted by Doctor Brackman, came to life. QAI ended its existence just as the structure brewed up, collapsing utterly into itself.

The planetary Quantum Jammer had proven its worth, it had destroyed the enormous threat posed to humanity by QAI. The Megalith slowly walked off, trailed by the other units, it had retrieved the Gate Codes to Earth, and that was what mattered, that was all that mattered…. For now.

One minute after the destruction of QAI, four Yolona Oss Missiles slammed home, one on top of QAI's former mainframe and moments later later one on each of the three prongs of support Network Nodes. The mere fact that the three later missiles survived the first missile's mushroom cloud provided proof as to why two Anti-missiles were required to neutralize a Yolona Oss missile, unlike the one anti-missile for a typical strategic missile.

No one would ever be able to salvage anything of what QAI once was. All its logs and hardware, what little that survived the initial super-charged overload pulse, was assimilated into the atmosphere of Pearl II… In other words, the remains were utterly vaporized.

* * *

"We have three hours, before the final attack on Earth; don't bother leaving your ACU or SCU" Hackett said "I'm going to get some sleep, recommend you do the same, the next Op will take a while, good thing you Separatists took down all the Loyalists' Ahwassa fleet and sabotaged their databases, they won't be able to field that many, I hope."

* * *

A/N: I hope I cleared up the HP value mess, which numerous people have reviewed about. It's also called an approximate measure of the strength of the unit's structural integrity fields…

If you read the A/N at the top of this chapter, skip to the last couple lines of this one to save time.

These fields can overcharge (which requires cool-down before it can overcharge again), which explains the astonishingly low (relative to common logic) damage of one-blast weapons such as Mavors, Ahwassas, Strategic bombers and nukes relative to say a Mech Marine's (T1 Light Assault Bot, the class that is the lowliest of combat-capable units, other than land scouts) machine gun. Also, overcharged structural fields are ineffective against beam weapons and non-extreme weaponry.

Hope that clears it up, later, Tali and Liara will likely get a similar lecture from John…

Reviews would be nice! (Please express your opinion on my explanation of HP points)

Warning: I publish AS SOON AS A CHAPTER IS FINISHED, so the next one (gotta make the end of the Seraphim War interesting, eh?) may take up to four days.


	7. Operation: Overlord

Chapter 7: Seraphim War – Operation Overlord

10 August, 3847

"Gotta keep this one short and sweet, Commanders, The Seraphim are rushing to complete their Arch, and we need to prevent that from happening. With QAI destroyed and the Order descending into anarchy, now is our time to strike." The Galactic map focused in on Earth, the blackened west coast of North America slowly rotating out of view, the grey, turbulent sea giving way to the frame, zooming in on one small island near Hawaii. "The mission is simple, you will go to Earth and destroy the Arch. Fletcher and Rhiza will gate in first and clear the area around your LZ. Once you're on the ground, build up your forces and attack."

Princess Rhianne spoke up "The destruction of the Arch does not mean the end of the Seraphim Loyalist threat, however. The Rift still must be sealed." a still-picture frame of the Quantum Rift popped up next to the map of the Operation Area, with a UEF symbol, Fletcher, on an island to the northeast, a green Aeon symbol, Rhiza, on an island to the northwest, a sickly green Aeon symbol, an Order commander, south of her on a smaller island, the Commanders on the northern tip of Ni-ihau, and Seraphim all along the island, stretching southwest "Once the Arch is destroyed, I will travel to Earth and enter the Rift. Once inside, I shall close it forever."

Hall frowned "There's no reason for you to do that, Princess Burke. We've got techs working on a solution. They just need a little more time."

The Princess rebuked the General firmly "We have no way of knowing what is happening on the Seraphim Loyalist side of the Rift. What if they are constructing an Arch on that side as well? We cannot take that chance. We are out of time."

"Look what happened when you came out of hiding. What do you think is going to happen if you die? Things will go from bad to worse." General Hall was frowning deeply by this point.

The Princess shook her head "The Seraphim represent our greatest threat. Without them, Kael is nothing. She is easily defeated. But the Seraphim are a danger as long as the Rift remains, it must be closed."

"There is another solution, Princess of the Aeon." A raspy voice, a Seraphim's voice, interjected. Seth immediately recognized it as General Ratheen, leader of the Separatists. "The massive quantum disruption created by the detonation of a Yolona Oss missile's quantum annihilation device necessitated a counterweight. If commander Thauum is able to construct two Yolona Oss launchers in time, we will be able to reconfigure one missile to feed all its energy into the quantum stabilization device. The overload will stabilize the Quantum fabric of space sufficiently to close the Rift without external interference. The secondary blast will also annihilate any Arch the Loyalists are constructing without fail. You need not sacrifice yourself." Ratheen paused for a moment before adding "Before you ask, the Arch is supposed to ease the Quantum fabric into a new position of stability, by pouring entropy into it, that allows travel, the current state of the rift will only require one push, from the Yolona Oss missile, to tilt into dissolution and stabilize at the point of lowest energy aka non-existence. There are three energy states it can have that apply here, and we will discuss this after the commanders leave."

"Very well, we will attempt your solution first, please inform us exactly how it works after this briefing is over." Rhianne nodded in acceptance.

"Commanders, you have your orders. You gate immediately." The faces of the three leaders faded away even as they began their own intense discussion.

"I find that their phrasing was inconsistent. They stated that 'Fletcher and Rhiza will gate in first' when if we're gating now they've already gated there" Shepard said to lighten up the mod a little.

* * *

"Support Commanders St. Croix and Victoria will assist you, and here are reinforcements." A fleet of C-14 Star Lifter transports dropped off a dozen Titan Heavy Assault Bots, and a Galactic Colossus walked out of the sea just south of the small base the four commanders received. Since the local area was low in mass but there were three mass deposits just south, in a small seraphim outpost, the four commanders immediately began to build a small block of Land Factories, only four, and putting Seraphim shields over the base. After reaching Tech 2, in no small degree due to the mass in the constant waves of Othuum Siege Tanks that moved up the coast, chewed up by the lone GC, the four commanders, supporting their units with Mobile AA and shields, marched south. They took over the Seraphim outpost without constructing any more Tier 3 units, Mongoose Gatling Bots proved critical support against the superior range of the Othuums, for though they were far weaker, they held a large range advantage and had decent firepower. Usha-ahs provided support fire in their Direct Fire mode, which still far outranged the Othuums. Athanah shields protected the expeditionary force.

Williams seized the opportunity, considering they'd just reached Tech 3, to fortify the area thoroughly. The northern shoreline of the island received similar treatment, clusters of Ravagers, Uttaushala, Miasmas, TML-4s, Myrmidons and Burst Masters, with Athanuhthe Shields (Seraphim T3 Heavy Shield) protecting the hard points from harm. A much more solid defence line, made possible by the high units cap of 3500, stretched across the southern area of the current Op Area. The four sent several scout planes to, well, scout the forward Seraphim base, then they took note of all the destroyed Experimentals littering the ground.

Hackett decided them and there that a Paragon was in order, and so he sent Commander Victoria to reclaim the Monkeylords to the south even as all four main Commanders, having just finished up the Air and Sea Factory blocks, complete with defences, focused on the Paragon. The mass bar on the four's display began to drop alarmingly, with all the engineers assisting the job, until Victoria began to grab the thousands of tons' worth of mass in the husks of the Experimentals. The bar was still slowly dropping, but a quick raid by the GC, Titans, Mongooses, Ascendants, and so on "liberated" enough mass from the Seraphim forward base, and the Ythotha wreck that was just east of said base, to complete the Paragon. The second Paragon, as they'd agreed to have a backup, would go up… somewhere else, later.

"Alright, now I can start Mavor farming!" Hackett grinned wickedly "Seth, prep the two Yolona Oss Launchers, Shepard, start cranking out assault experimentals, keep some air experimentals around to take out the Order commander later. Williams, help us keep an eye on the line and reinforce it as necessary with Experimentals of your own." Units from Seraphim Commanders in the south, further down the island, had begun to spill north, waves of Othuum tanks supported by Athanahs and Iashavohs (Seraphim T2 Mobile Flak, hovers like the Ascendant does).

"STRATEGIC LAUNCH DETECTED" the computer intoned as the last of the buildings in the former forward base crumbled under a hail of Percival and Brick Armoured Assault Bot fire. "STRATEGIC LAUNCH DETECTED" sounded once more before the onboard computers fell silent again.

"Williams, are all our SMDs in order and in place?" Hackett asked tersely, in response, he got a curt "Yes."

Hackett watched the missile move over their main base and start descent, an antimissile flying up from the nearest Guardian SMD to swat it out of the sky successfully. "Well, at least it's not from an enemy Yolona Oss… so there were more, huh?" Four missiles began to come down near the forward defence line, this time, two Guardians worked in tandem to take the missiles down, the secondary one having activated when more than three missiles were detected.

"Now that that's over with, let's see who's next on our hit list…" Shepard wondered once the next attack wave, two Ythothas, an Ahwassa, and a SHITLOAD of Othuum Siege Tanks, backed by Athanahs, were splattered across the landscape by mass Ravager fire. Her fourth Soul Ripper had just finished building.

"I've had enough of you Fanatics and Chip heads" Fletcher's angry voice came over the comm. as Rhiza transmitted footage of a naval battle between a Seraphim fleet, Rhiza's fleet, and Fletcher's fleet. The four commanders helped eradicate the Seraphim fleet with Summit-class battleship fire from long range, then suddenly, Fletchers fleet began attacking Rhiza's, catching the few remaining Omen-class battleships Rhiza possessed unawares and sinking them before they could do more than superficial damage to the Neptune-class Battlecruisers and Summit-class Battleships Fletcher was fielding. Shepard immediately grabbed her four Soul Rippers and flew them north in preparation for an attack on or by Fletcher while the others tried to reason with the man.

"Brigadier, have you lost your mind? The Seraphim Loyalists are the biggest threat to human existence in history! We must unite defeat them, not quarrel among ourselves!" Rhiza spoke in harsh, clipped tones.

"You think your stupid Illuminate and the Chip heads are gonna leave us alone after this shit is over? And let's not even mention the fucking so-called Seraphim Separatists…" Fletcher said "No, it is the UEF that must be dominant for peace to come out of this whole mess, I'll capture, rebuild, and fire Black Sun again, then we'll see what matters, the blue of the UEF, that's what!"

"HQ, recall Brigadier Fletcher immediately, I don't want him on my battlefield." Hackett said while Shepard was muttering "What a douche bag…"

"Fletcher has turned off his ACU's recall beacon; we have no other choice, get up there and eliminate Fletcher before he hampers the mission too much." General Hall said.

"Alright, let's do this thing" Shepard's five Soul Rippers took under thirty seconds to bore through the shields over Fletcher's base and another ten to wear down his ACU, which then went up in a massive ball of nuclear fire "Stupid SOB didn't even upgrade his ACU with shields, he'd have had a chance if he did…"

"It wasn't your fault, Commanders, he left you no choice" Hall said, Seth, Shepard and Williams snorted, thinking _we're more likely to celebrate the bigot's death_… They went about establishing another resource base with a Paragon amidst Fletcher's old base, which self-destructed after he died.

"Your next target is Order Commander Vendetta, be warned, she has a Paragon in her base, so she'll throw waves of experimentals at you, but if you can destroy it, it will cripple her economy." Rhiza paused in her briefing "That's not to mention the Strategic-level explosion if it goes up." She smiled, then cut the connection.

"Well, my first Mavor is ready for some action… I'll just start shooting now." Hackett said, sure enough within a minute, the Mavor, along with the Salvation Williams had built and two of Shepard's Scathis units, had annihilated the Paragon, Vendetta going up with it. The Mavor struck the final blow with its accuracy, the other three being quite inaccurate and far more suited to wide-area carnage.

"All commanders on Earth, the path to the Arch is laid bare, now is our time to strike, destroy the Arch before it is completed!" Princess Rhianne and for some odd reason General Ratheen announced over the public channel.

"You fool, you think the Arch was still in-progress? No, the Seraphim have completed it and reinforcements are pouring through as we speak, you have lost, Rhianne, it is time to admit defeat." Evaluator Kael's hooded visage stated, her eyes glowing a maniacal red.

"God damn it, get down there and destroy that damned Arch once and for all!" The HQ man yelled. "Some of the Option Zero weaponry is still intact… capture the marked control center to gain access to the nukes, if you even want them now…"

"Shepard, you lead the charge, Seth, follow up and clean up after her Air Experimentals, Williams, hold the west and east coasts and the defences around us, I'll coordinate our artillery fire and assemble more experimentals" Hackett delegated, starting work on two dozen assorted Fatboys, Monkeylords, Galactic Colossi, and Megaliths, which Dr. Brackman had just sent the schematics for to Shepard's Cybran Engineers. The dozens of factories in the main base and Fletcher's old base came to life and began cranking out standard T3 units…

The wall of mixed UEF, Cybran, Aeon and Seraphim experimentals crashed head-on into the hordes of Othuum Siege Tanks, Ilshavoh Assault Bots, and more hostile units. Ahwassas, Soul Rippers and CZARs cut down the hostile Ythothas before they could do too much damage, finally, in a mighty clash of titans, experimentals began to fall. Tens of thousands of tons of slagged war machines hit the ground on both sides, but still the Coalition coming out on top. When their Ythothas were destroyed, they would already have manhandled their way past the enemy lines, so the Othuy Energy Signatures would do much damage to the enemy. The Seraphim tried to do the same, but the range superiority of Fatboys, Megaliths, and even the Heavy Electron Bolters of Monkeylords held off the walkers from planting their Othuy death signatures close enough. Though several Monkeylords took damage, the Othuy did not latch on, and so they survived. After the Coalition experimentals navigated around the minefield of Othuy, they began the final advance toward the Seraphim base…

"STRATEGIC LAUNCH DETECTED" Computers in Coalition command units all across the battlefield chimed. Hackett's eyes widened as the Yolona Oss missile descended upon one wing of the attack force. The five Megaliths, six Monkeylords, Two Galactic Colossi, and one Ythotha were instantly vaporized by the enormous blast, which caused the very earth to shake, move and buckle, leaving behind a massive crater. The other, eastern attack force kept moving even as Three Soul Rippers and two Ahwassas took out the Yolona Oss in one run, the Ahwassas taking down the shields and the Soul Rippers ripping the damned building to shreds.

The hail of Mavor, Salvation and Scathis fire never let up for a second. Finally, the last of the Seraphim Commanders in the operation area brewed up, and all the units of the four, those not preoccupied with silencing those Seraphim units that came through the Rift like a flood, focused fire on the two enormous monolithic prongs of the Quantum Arch. With four Soul Rippers, three Megaliths, two Fatboys, and two Galactic Colossi (the Monkeylords, with the highest damage rate, were busy mowing down the Seraphim units that kept flooding out of the Rift), it didn't take long before one prong, then the other, collapsed. The Rift suddenly changed from dark purple to a lavender shade, and units stopped coming through.

"Now, launch those two missiles into the Rift!" Commanded General Ratheen, General Hall, Princess Rhianne, and Doctor Brackman, the four leaders of the Coalition, as one.

"Understood, proceeding now." Seth shared a look with the humans who over the last few days had become his brothers and sisters, and the four simultaneously pushed the big red buttons in their ACUs.

Two one hundred and fifty meter long missiles, each forty meters wide, charged up. The launch rails on the Yolona Oss launchers flared bright with energy, four launch prongs lit up, ring by ring, until all eight prongs on both launchers began to glow and pulse rhythmically. Then, in a fraction of a second, the massive missiles were thrown from the launch assemblies and hurled skyward, their own quantum impulse engines warping the fabric of space and bending their trajectories, independent of gravity, merely adjusting their own inertial direction as guidance. They flew toward the Rift, and, near the end of the flight, the heavy-duty engines of one kicked in and propelled it through before the other.

A blinding flash emitted from the rift, then a massive shockwave travelled outward from the titanic distortion. The second missile passed through just as the lips of the Rift began to narrow and close upon itself, another flash came through, slowly fading as the Rift narrowed and itself faded. Finally, the abomination closed, forever.

All the Humans and Seraphim Separatists breathed a sigh of relief on that day, and it was on that day that the remaining Seraphim Loyalists and Order commanders began to use more desperate tactics. Despite this, the day would forever be recorded in the annals of history as the day the Coalition triumphed over the genocidal Seraphim Imperium.

* * *

Rhiza conversed with Williams privately right after recall "Kael has grown desperate, she has levelled entire continents that have risen up in rebellion against her rule, killing billions of innocents. Her reign is nearing its end, Champion, though I fear that, even with the Princess still with us to mediate the peace, this is only a prelude to something else… Something that is greater than any one of us, something that will shake the whole galaxy, is on its way, I do not know if we will live to see it, but it is coming."

Williams responded with a hint of shock in her voice "The average Aeon lives up to four hundred years, the average well-off UEF citizen about the same, though the poor die much earlier, and the average Cybran can live up to six hundred years, the average Seraphim about five hundred, do you expect this thing to take that long to arrive?"

Rhiza shook her head "No, I feel that it is well within our life expectancies, however, whether we will live to see it is another matter."

And so began what would to later generations be known as the Coalition of Species. No one knew it then, but on that day, the very balance of the Milky Way, of the universe, shifted ever so subtly. For it was on that day, that the Drell, having more or less salvaged their homeworld from destruction with the aid of the Cybrans, discovered the first Prothean ruins the Coalition would find, buried deep under the desert sands of Rakhana.

…The face of the galaxy would soon change forever, and a cycle millions of years in the making would be utterly shattered…

* * *

A/N: Please note this is the end of the Prequel to Supreme Commander: Mass Effect (can be found on my profile), Supreme Commander: Koprulu Sector (Will be written after SupCom: ME is complete) and any future Supreme Commander Crossovers I write unless explicitly stated.


End file.
